Responsible travel is not only a buzzword for us, we take it seriously. As a tour operator, we “do our part” by doing business responsibly and organising our tours in a more responsible way.
Our most important actions for making tourism more responsible are the following:
In general
- We pay particular attention to ethical and responsible business conduct in our work and cooperation with our partners.
- We always pay our partners a fair price and on time.
- Our colleagues provide real and extensive information to our clients.
- To encourage our passengers to travel more responsibly, we compiled the most important information about responsible travel on our website.
- We do care about the environment (during our tours and in our daily operation), the well-being of our employees and the support of the needy.
- We provide fair remuneration for the work of our employees. Moreover we help them to find a healthy balance between their work and private life.
For the environment
- Whenever possible we use recycled paper and try to avoid excessive paper consumption. For examply, we print on both sides of the paper, we print in draft mode and edit our documents with narrow margin.
- Our official stamp is made from recycled plastic and we use replaceable stamp pads.
- We manage our administrative processes electronically (e.g. communication with our tour guides, clients, banking services) and we avoid printing documents.
- We do our best to reduce our environmental footprint and try to make conscious decisions on waste. As much as possible we follow zero waste concept. For example, we buy only what we really need and – if possible – in big quantities, we use our own shopping bags and try to buy things without packaging.
- We offer tours on foot which is the most environment friendly way of getting acquainted with landscape and lifestyle of local people.
- During our safaris we pay utmost attention on the wildlife and we avoid unnecessary disturbance of the animals. We always comply with park rules and regulations.
- We support local environmental projects both directly and by introducing them to our clients.
For local culture and society
- During the trips we put special emphasis on direct interaction with local people and learn more about their customs. Whenever it is possible, we try to help travelers to “mingle” with locals.
- We educate our clients on basic norms of local behaviour and religious customs and ask them to respect the local rules (e.g. wear proper clothes, learn how to shake hands, take no photos on locals without their consent).
- Giving money or small gifts to children in the streets can encourage them to beg instead of going to school. Therefore, we discourage our passengers to do so.
- We support the education and well-being of needy children as well as development projects of local communities in several ways. If you also wish to help local children, people or communities by supporting our causes, please contact us.
For economy and well-being of local people
- We only use the services of local workforce (drivers, tour guides, driver-guides, administration etc.).
- We want to help local people by giving them jobs. Therefore, we can also provide a tour leader – beside the driver – to accompany your group. Moreover, wherever is possible we use the services of other workforce (cooks, local guides, taxi drivers) in order to employ as many local people as possible.
- Whenever is possible we use small, independent, locally-owned accommodations.
- We always rent vehicles from reliable local businesses.
- We do our shopping in local markets and from locally run businesses.
- In case our travellers wish to buy gifts and souvenirs, we encourage them to buy from local artisans. However we discourage them to purchase unnecessary items.