G Adventures on preparing for the return of touring and adventure holidays
G Adventures’ new range of trips aims to reassure customers about the safety of travelling on an escorted tour post-coronavirus. Madeleine Barber reports.
In a landscape where clients are increasingly seeking more socially distant holidays to stay safe from Covid-19, questions about how some escorted tour operators can reassure customers and encourage bookings are surfacing. But G Adventures has no intention of letting holidaymakers’ reservations about health and safety keep them away from touring, having launched a new range of trips named Travel With Confidence Plus.
The collection is made up of 37 tours in 27 countries across multiple continents, and although featuring pre-existing itineraries, has been designed to go the extra mile when implementing Covid-19 prevention measures. These include offering downsized groups of 12 maximum so travellers interact with fewer people, private transport throughout (except when air travel is neccessary) so that regular sanitising of the vehicle can be controlled, and rooms with en suites to avoid shared bathroom facilities. Plus, those travelling on their own will benefit from a 50% reduction in the cost of having a room to themselves and will be given two seats on all transfers.
The customer is always right
Amanda Dunning, brand partnerships manager for G Adventures, says it was feedback from customers that spurred on this business development: “We did a consumer survey about what people wanted from travel and how their thoughts were changing, and 69% of travellers said they expected to see travel companies make changes for health and safety.”
“That’s where all of this came from – we know that travel is going to look different and we want to make people feel confident when they do travel again,” she adds.
One benefit of touring in general Dunning highlights is that having a guide means clients are with someone who speaks the local language, and they have this support in terms of language and logistics should they fall ill.
G Adventures’ first departure since suspending operations in mid-March will be a Travel With Confidence Plus tour to Iceland on 2 September, followed by an active Mont Blanc departure on 5 September. In total G Adventures will run 21 European tours in September, not exclusively Travel With Confidence Plus, with Dunning saying they are “still reviewing” the remaining September departures.
In terms of UK sales, Dunning reports that Jordan and Costa Rica selling well, as well as India for 2021 bookings.
The origin of the idea
The operator is able to relaunch tours so soon thanks to its Travel With Confidence policy, which was rolled out in early June across all G Adventures itineraries. It involves giving chief experience officers (local guides) more training, rethinking schedules to avoid the busiest times at tourist sites, enhanced cleaning protocols on all transport vessels, and working with hotel partners to ensure they have effective health and safety measures in place.
Dunning describes the policy as “holisitic”, explaining: “Our goal of Travel With Confidence was to help offer reassurance for travellers, as we know there’s a pent-up demand and we want to make people feel comfortable – the Travel With Confidence Plus collection is an extension of this.”
Dunning also explains that the operator has put a “renewed focus” on private touring. By rebranding this arm of the operator to Book Your Bubble, G Adventures is promoting the fact that customers can travel in the safety of the friends and family they’re already connected with in the UK.
“I think we’re taking really great steps, and the important thing is to listen to what our customers want but also to the government and other organisations so we can band together as an industry to get through this and ensure safety,” says Dunning.
“It’s our job to make sure we’re making travel stronger and more robust as we go – this is just the beginning.”
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