December 19th, 2018
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL & WHAT’S THEIR MISSION?
We’ve done the hard work in meeting the criteria to become a part of the responsibletravel.com community and become a member. The work was certainly worthwhile as it is important to us to separate ourselves from tourism businesses who do not do as much (or anything) to minimize environmental impacts or contribute to the local community.
Please visit responsibletravel.com and learn about their exceptional effort to promote unique, (really) environment-friendly, sustainable and ethical adventures all around the planet earth. Thanks to the Responsible Travel team for accepting our application and acknowledging our support of sustainability in all aspects of our operations. We believe this is the right way to go! Will you join us?
Responsible Travel is a platform to find guilt-free holidays and that’s a great resource for differentiating between operators that value ethical travel over consumptive and over tourism. Responsible Travel also educates on many diverse topics and write super handy guides for trips, destinations and activities based on high-quality research.
AN INTRODUCTION OF THEIR’ MISSION FROM OWNER JUSTIN FRANCIS:
‘If you’ve got something wonderful you’ve always wanted to do, we will find a person somewhere in the world that does just that and their specialty is doing that wonderful thing. But we do so in a way that creates benefits to the local people and conservation. That is the whole responsible tourism dimension. That is the magical way.’ See full video here.
All their supported vacation packages are carefully checked and approved by their team. The application includes the following criteria:
Policy aims – the company’s ethos & mission statement
Economic responsibility – e.g. supporting charities, employing local people, etc
Environmental responsibility – e.g. recycling, protecting wildlife & national parks, etc
Social responsibility – e.g. preserving local culture, visits to local projects, etc
WHY IS IT worth to become a member?
For a ‘small-sized’ tour operator as we are it’s always questionable to get promoted through an online travel agency. This time, the decision wasn’t hard. We believe in responsible travel and want to give it a stronger voice. There aren’t many platforms around that work hard to ensure the above criteria are met, but we love to see that positive industry growing. The more travel and tour providers sign up and stand out with exactly those features the more tourism will change in a healthy and fair direction.
In our particular case, we stand for educating our guests in respectful wildlife watching and travelling in nature (leave no trace and treat everything with great admiration), sustainable company development, environmental responsibilities and supporting the local economy and community.
IN search of a BC or international adventure?
Have a look at our BC Trips page, or maybe consider a trip with us in the Bahamas or Patagonia. There are so many opportunities to travel fairly and for the benefit of smaller, local provider and our partners.
A couple interesting links to learn more about it all:
A GUIDE FOR RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
LEARN THE RISKS OF IRRESPONSIBLE TRAVEL
