The adventure operator along with its non-profit partner Planeterra have joined forces with Friends-International’s ChildSafe Movement.

Its aim is to raise awareness of child protection and welfare within tourism, and directly with travellers.

Both G Adventures and Planeterra were consulted on the full ChildSafe guidelines, along with other expert bodies - including Unicef, the United National Children’s Fund.

The operator has since published a simplified, branded version of the guidelines to be launched to the industry this June. A consumer-facing campaign will follow in November.

The guidelines are designed to educate the industry and consumers on how interact responsibly with children when travelling, such as taking pictures respectfully, not disrupting education, and giving gifts and donations in a manner that does not promote begging.

G Adventures is urging the industry to adopt the guidelines, which following its animal welfare and indigenous people guidelines launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Jamie Sweeting, G Adventures vice-president social enterprise and responsible travel, said travel companies must do more while proactively educating travellers.

"As a travel company, we wanted to make sure we were doing the best we could and these guidelines are helping us make appropriate changes internally,” he said.

“We have swept all our digital assets and owned channels to ensure all our media complies, and we’ve removed all school classroom visits from our itineraries.

“We’re next to embark on an internal training programme with all staff, with the goal of becoming ChildSafe Certified by the end of the year.”