Launched ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday (8 March), the initiatives will seek to help more than 2,800 women in Israel, India, Colombia, Greece and the Maldives.
The projects – which G expects to be visited by 3,000 travellers annually – are part of the Project 100 initiative, a commitment to have 100 Planeterra projects built into G Adventures tours by the end of this year.
With the newly added enterprises, the total number now built into G’s tours has reached 85.
Each year, more than 100,000 travellers visit Planeterra projects, impacting the lives of more than 60,000 local people, with initiatives focusing on improving the lives of women, and young and indigenous people.
The five new projects see G and Planeterra journey to Medellin, Colombia, a city once controlled by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, to visit the Berracas de la 13 restaurant, which has developed a local tour and meal service and grown local infrastructure to create a sustainable income stream which welcomes travellers looking to learn from local guides, purchase unique handicrafts and try new food.
The experience is available on a nine-day Colombia Express tour priced from £1,179pp.
In Jerusalem, G customers can visit the city’s Domari Community Centre, created as a place where Dom women and children can be supported and given vocational training while gaining the confidence and independence to thrive.
The Dom community in Jerusalem faces regular discrimination due to not being fully integrated into either Israeli or Palestinian societies.
Planeterra has supported the Domari Society of Gypsies by helping to create a tourism experience offering locals the chance to showcase traditional food, cultural stories and handicrafts.
Travellers can visit this project while on a 15-day Jordan and Israel Adventure tour from Amman to Jerusalem, priced from £2,449pp.
G said the Indian state of Kerala still struggles with female participation in the labour force. Agriculture is the main source of income for families, but women often don’t have the opportunity to gain skills and find employment beyond the traditional areas they work in.
Planeterra’s support of TWE (Together We Earn) helps provide skills-training opportunities, a customer base of travellers and a sustainable income source through its construction of a kitchen in rural Alleppey – used for hospitality training and hosting international travellers.
Travellers can visit and experience this project on a seven-day National Geographic Journeys South India: Explore Kerala tour, priced from £849pp.
In Athens, G guests can visit Shedia Home, a not-for-profit organisation working to employ and empower those experiencing homelessness and social exclusion in the Greek capital, where they can hear an educational talk from one of the Shedia’s guides currently experiencing homelessness and have the option to join a tour of Athens which “makes the invisible (homeless) visible”.
The 15-day Best of Greece tour from Athens to Santorini is priced from £1,999pp and visits Shedia Home.
In the Maldivian capital of Male, Planeterra has partnered with a local travel firm to integrate plastic pick-ups into all G tours traveling through the Maldives.
Planeterra provides the equipment necessary for travellers to engage in plastic clean-ups on beaches, with the goal of preventing tonnes of plastic waste from ending up in the ocean.
A local non-profit also assists in the processing of the collected plastic to be used for upcycling in countries which have the proper infrastructure to do so.
The Maldives Plastic Program can be experienced on the eight-day Maldives Island Hopping trip, priced from £649pp.
Jamie Sweeting, president of Planeterra and vice-president of Responsible Travel at G, said: “Supporting the local communities we visit is at the forefront of everything we do, and these new projects continue our mission of turning travel into impact.
“I’m proud projects like these put the spotlight on the women in these communities and all the amazing work they’re doing.”
Image credit: Planeterra Foundation/G Adventures
