More than 300 departures this October will operate as vaccinated tours, in which all travellers must also be fully inoculated.
According to a survey of 4,624 people from G’s global consumer panel, more than half (56%) said having a vaccinated guide was more important to them than their fellow travellers being fully vaccinated.
Just less than half (45%) indicated they would prefer fellow travellers to be fully vaccinated when travelling on a small-group tour.
The adventure operator is also introducing "Travel-Ready" tours to ensure equitable access to tourism employment opportunities for tour guides in destinations which have not administered vaccines as widely as other countries. Out of the 360 tours operating in October 2021, 64 will be designated as "Travel-Ready".
Jeff Russill, chief operating officer at G Adventures, said that while the operator is prioritising the placement of vaccinated tour guides, they also want to continue with the company’s mission of "changing lives through travel in as many countries as possible, as quickly as possible, through community tourism".
"By October we will have successfully, and safely, run close to 1,000 tours since September 2020 – more tours than any other operator – supporting employment and boosting the local economies of countries that are dependent on tourism, such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Morocco, Peru and Kenya," he added.
The vaccinated tours programme includes a trip to Italy’s Amalfi coast on 9 October 2021, from £1,269pp.