In this policy, COVID-19 guidelines, protocols and prevention plans have been outlined, as well as health and safety measures including hygiene, social distancing, and traveller and staff health guidelines.

In addition, training for staff, contingency plans and protocols have also been developed, all satisfying the WTTC Safe Travels standards for global tour operators.

 

Purple Dog has always put the safety of its community of travellers, staff, suppliers, and suppliers first, and this remains our core priority. As we look to return to a holiday/trek/tour resumption, the situation must be evaluated carefully to ensure the highest levels of safety possible.

 

Our Commitment to Health & Safety at Purple Dog

 

Operational and Staff Preparedness

We are looking to follow the health, hygiene, and physical distancing measures required

which follows both the World Travel and Tourism Council Safe Travel policy and the ATTA Adventure Travel COVID-19 Guidelines.

 

Before You Leave

• Purple Dog offers a detailed Book with Confidence policy to cancel and rebook for shorter windows prior to travel.

• A Self-Screening COVID-19 Questionnaire will be sent closer to departure, and if passengers answer “yes” to certain questions, they need to provide negative test result(s). For more information, speak to your guide or your holiday representative.

• If the pre-screening process identifies that a traveller cannot wear a mask due to their medical condition(s) and/or is unwilling to wear a mask, they will be unable to join the group.

• In this screening process, we will also ensure that travellers understand the travel insurance requirements and the updated Traveller Conduct Policy, which includes an additional section on COVID-19 related concerns. You must acknowledge that they have read and understood

both elements.

 

Hygiene Protocol Throughout the Tour

• Purple dog will reinforce the importance of handwashing and hygiene throughout the tour, especially before and after meals, prior to boarding a vehicle, and after touching any high-traffic or high-touch areas.

• Our staff will also provide travellers with coaching on how to properly cover one’s mouth from coughs and sneezes to reduce the number of droplets and other hygiene standards. This will follow WHO guidelines on hygiene standards.

 

Personal Protective Equipment

• The WHO’s guidance is that masks are an important part of the overall strategy to protect communities as well as travellers, however, they are only one part of a comprehensive strategy.

• Masks are required for all travellers and staff to bring with them on tour, wear on vehicles and in crowded areas, and wherever physical distancing of two m. is not possible.

• Travellers must bring their own masks and will not be able to participate in the tour unless they have and wear a mask (ideally reusable and non-medical).

• Wearing a mask means following the WHO’s guidance on how to wear a mask; the mask must be worn over one’s mouth, nose and chin.

• If travellers do not follow the above requirements for masks, they will be removed from the tour at their own expense in accordance with Purple Dog’s Traveller Conduct Policy.

• Gloves are not required for travellers at this time, but travellers can bring them should they feel more comfortable.

• While we will make every effort to have hand sanitizer available, it’s requested that hand sanitizer be brought from home by all travellers to assist with hand hygiene.

• Our Adventure and Extreme guides will be outfitted with Personal Protective Equipment for the tour (masks, hand sanitizer, and optional gloves).

 

Social Distancing

• Our Adventure and Extreme groups are most often no larger than 16 passengers.

• All passengers must try to keep a minimum of 2m (or the appropriate distance as per local regulations) away from each other wherever possible, and wear masks wherever physical distancing is not possible.

• Your Guide will help enforce this, and it has been added into the Traveller Conduct Policy, so travellers are aware prior to joining the group.

• Your guide will also assist with proactively attempting to move the group through highlights, tours, or experiences at off-peak periods, if at all possible, to limit exposure. Delivering a Safe Experience

 

Accommodation Hygiene Measures

• Purple Dog has a strict approach for our supplier chain when dealing with increased health and safety for all accommodation suppliers. This has been incorporated into the existing Standard Operating Procedures and contracts moving forward, ensuring that our suppliers

follow the same guidelines and recommendations as Purple Dog.

• Accommodation that Purple Dog use are chosen for their high standards and local roots, which means they are often smaller properties. This means less contact with others outside the group daily in public areas. Some of the increased health & safety measures for

accommodations are:

• Enhanced cleaning of all areas, including more frequent cleaning of common areas, meeting spaces, and back-of-house spaces.

• The use of cleaning checklists to ensure consistency of cleaning and disinfection practices.

• Barring an emergency and only upon request, no hotel staff will enter your room after you’ve checked in.

• Barring an emergency, no hotel staff will enter your room after it has been cleaned for the day.

• Properly maintain all pools, hot tubs, spas, and water play areas (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine). Be sure to adequately disinfect other surfaces in these areas, set occupancy limits and enforce physical distancing.

• Ensure adequate supply of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees. This includes face masks for all employees and disposable gloves for those involved in food preparation, room cleaning, and other facility maintenance, following CDC guidelines.

• Hotels to implement staff screening and self-monitoring policy for COVID-19 symptoms. Staff with symptoms will be sent/kept home and instructed to seek medical advice as per local health and safety regulations

• Train all employees on proper techniques for donning and doffing PPE.

These measures will continue to be reviewed and all hotels will be required to meet the minimum mandatory requirements of its jurisdiction.

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Accommodation Social Distancing

• All rooms for Purple Dog tours are based on single or double occupancy with some exceptions. See trip details for more specific accommodation information.

• Those who are travelling solo have the option of sharing a room with another passenger, or purchasing a single room supplement.

• If someone travelling on their own is sharing with another passenger, that will be their roommate for the entirety of the trip whenever possible.

• Wherever possible, groups from Purple Dog will stay on the lower floors of a property to limit elevator use.

• Hotels will implement physical distancing protocols in line with local regulations.

• Hotels have been requested to maintain physical distancing throughout the facility, including at entrances and exits, the front desk, concierge spaces, pools and beaches, fitness facilities, restaurants, and back-of-house areas.

• Reduced occupancy in areas of excessive air movement (e.g., close to doors and areas with drafts).

 

Transportation Hygiene Measures

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Small private transport vehicles

• Every surface in all of the private vehicles used on tours will get at least one daily deep cleaning, and additional cleaning throughout high-traffic/high-touch areas.

• Hand sanitising or washing will be required every time a traveller boards the vehicle.

• Drivers and any other vehicle staff will wear appropriate PPE on private vehicles. Appropriate PPE is defined as masks for the purpose of wearing, but also using hand sanitizer. Gloves are optional.

• Doors and other common touchpoints to be used only when necessary by staff.

• Touching luggage will be limited to the traveller, and the driver/staff when necessary.

• Purple Dog will actively prioritize and work with operators who offer contactless solutions.

• Should there be any shared devices or touchpoints, they will be cleaned between each use.

• Suppliers to implement staff screening and self-monitoring policy for COVID-19 symptoms. Staff with symptoms will be sent/kept home and instructed to seek medical advice as per local health and safety regulations. Guides will be trained to escalate should any supplier staff be symptomatic within their management team.

 

Public transportation

• Masks will be required to be worn on public transportation.

• When public transportation is used, precautions will be followed, like wearing appropriate PPE, moving during off-peak times where possible, etc., and it will be in adherence to local health and safety requirements.

 

Transportation Physical Distancing for Private Vehicles

• Each traveller will have a daily assigned seat. In the event that the assigned seat needs to be changed, those surfaces will be deep cleaned prior to the change.

• Masks are required to be worn while onboard by all travellers and staff.

• If air conditioning is available on the vehicle, it should be set to external airflow vs. recirculation. Windows should be open whenever appropriate.

• Wherever possible, leaving space between passengers on vehicles will be ideal.

 

Restaurants/Meals Hygiene Measures

We have always carefully selected our food service suppliers and worked closely with them to ensure they are meeting health, safety, and cleanliness standards with their facilities, staff training, and food preparation and delivery. In the event that a guide would choose a restaurant, we will either provide suggestions or require guides to review restaurants based on this list of criteria:

• Restaurants will need to comply with all local health and hygiene standards applicable to their operations.

• Single-use items should be discarded.

• Daily deep cleaning instituted for the entire establishment if it was not previously.

• All linens and napkins to be laundered with disinfecting laundry detergent at higher than usual temperatures if possible. Consider using disposable napkins.

• Avoid all food contact surfaces when using disinfectants.

• Travellers must wash their hands before and after meals and using hand sanitizer at entrance is preferred.

• Breakfasts and other meals can be acquired in “grab and go” boxes. Family style/self-serve buffets are avoided for meals whenever possible. There may be opportunities for buffets in controlled environments where staff is serving (using appropriate PPE).

• Restaurant staff must be trained on, and comply with, all local health and safety regulations and able to answer questions about hygiene policies.

• Implement staff screening and self-monitoring policy for COVID-19 symptoms. Staff with symptoms will be sent/kept home and instructed to seek medical advice as per local health and safety regulations.

 

Restaurant Social Distancing

• Separate tables or private rooms at the restaurants will be reserved wherever possible.

• More outdoor dining opportunities will be included.

• All restaurants will comply with local regulations around physical distancing.

• For any included meals, Purple Dog will require restaurant employees to wear masks at all times.

 

Restaurants & Meals

All Purple Dog Guides must:

• Complete mandatory COVID-19 Health & Safety Training prior to starting a tour.

• Be outfitted with PPE (masks and hand sanitizer, and optional gloves) and have access to more if required.

• Complete pre-tour pre-screening requirements to ensure that they are in good health and have no symptoms.

• Continue to monitor symptoms and stay in contact with local field offices and update accordingly.

• At this time, we are not instituting mandatory testing for guides, but they are to remain in constant contact with their field office teams and monitor their own symptoms.

 

Guides will also:

• Support physical distancing efforts while on-tour, maintaining a minimum of six ft. or two m., or the local recommended distance.

• Provide local guidance on regulations and rules about COVID-19.

• Provide support if any passengers feel ill or need assistance finding local clinics.

• Attempt to visit sites when they are the least crowded whenever possible.

• Support the local teams with any emergencies.

• Report any suppliers who are not following the updated health and safety protocols, and physical distancing protocols.

 

Activities

It is imperative that any staff or traveller with symptoms feel comfortable sharing their concerns in order to assist in stopping the spread of the disease. Below are the stages in the customer journey where both travellers and staff can monitor and share whether they have any symptoms.

 

Pre-Departure - Customers

• All travellers are required to complete a pre-screening process through the Self-Screening

COVID-19 Questionnaire and answer questions to ensure they are healthy to travel. Testing

may be required depending on answers to the Questionnaire.

 

Pre Departure - Staff

• Guides are required to fill out their Self-Screening COVID-19 Questionnaire within two days

of their tour commencing.

 

On Trip

• All guides, and travellers will be asked to monitor their own health and notify operations staff if they are suffering from any COVID-19 symptoms.

• Guides will have a daily briefing in the morning (ideally at least one hour before next activity) to remind travellers daily about self-screening.

• Guides will remind travellers to monitor themselves, review the common symptoms, and to speak to the guide privately if they have any questions or concerns.

• If there are symptoms identified, the guide will fill out an incident report. They will use this if there is a case of COVID-19 (for all travellers, guides, and vendors) or if there are symptoms identified on tour.

• Symptoms and the daily self-screening process will be detailed to travellers in the

 

Removal of Customers

• Purple Dog Management reserves the right to remove any participants from the group if they are unwell, show symptoms, do not comply with rules around health and safety, handwashing, physical distancing, etc. and/or are unwilling to be tested. This information is reflected in our Traveller Conduct Policy.

 

Health Monitoring

When operations are able to be resumed, Purple Dog will consider the following factors for each destination’s reopening, based on the ATTA’s guidelines:

 

Destination Travel Restrictions

• Will resume when there are no travel restrictions in place or Purple Dog’s customers and staff are able to comply with country travel restrictions. Restrictions around returning home should also be considered.

 

Destination COVID-19 Situation

• Using official resources and information available, the situation in-country will be assessed. As this will constantly change, it will be consistently monitored.

 

Airline Reliability

• If a destination will resume operations, a review of available flight routes must be undertaken.

 

Destination Track & Trace Program

• A consideration for whether a destination has a test, trace, and track program in place, and Purple Dog must understand the testing policies in place.

• The rules around contact tracing apps should also be considered.

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Community Impact Assessment

• Before resuming operations, a thoughtful impact assessment will be conducted to understand how operating a group trip in a region could impact the vulnerable communities.

 

Operator’s Assessment of Destination COVID-19 Situation

• Purple Dog will continue to monitor the situation even after a decision to resume operations has been made.

 

Emergency Evacuation

• Purple Dog has a robust Critical Risk Management (CRM) protocol, in which evacuation is a key component. Destinations will be reviewed based on evacuation risks and capabilities.

 

Level of Clinical Care

• A destination’s level of clinical care will be reviewed prior to re-opening. Procedures For Staff/Traveller Showing Symptoms

• Procedures for staff/travellers showing symptoms have been created.

 

Post Operational Procedures for Staff/Traveller

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Showing Symptoms

• High level procedures for staff/travellers showing symptoms have been created, taking into consideration privacy responsibilities. Separate internal review criteria that incorporate this information has been established and will be used to assess destinations prior to resuming operations.

 

Resuming Operations

At Purple Dog, we pride ourselves on prompt responses due to our thirty years of experience, and a comprehensive Critical Risk Management (CIM) policy, as well as a global CRM team who works through any emergencies that arise. Purple Dog has created robust processes which will be put into place if travellers, Guides, or staff members are symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19 before, during, and after the tour.

 

Protecting all vulnerable individuals — including both our travellers and the residents of the communities we visit — is extremely important to us, and thus a thorough review and assessment must be taken to ensure they are always protected. Purple Dog is taking inventory of all rural community-based partners visited on tours to assess and confirm readiness, to share the precautions Purple Dog is taking, and to confirm consent to receive travellers. Community organizations reserve the right to cancel future trips if circumstances change or if they deem the risk too high over time.

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