Donegal self catering cottages, Ireland
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We feel that we make a difference by helping to protect the environment, and taking responsibility for our everyday actions. By staff training and advising all customers, making people aware; we are contributing to a better, safer environment for our families. Even small changes over a period of years should have a very positive effect. We hope to learn, improve with time, and influence others to make bigger and better changes.
Our aim is to minimise negative economic, environmental and social impacts. We will generate greater economic benefits for local people; we promote relevant responsible working conditions. The industry must involve access to local people and in planning decisions that affect their lives. We will be positive in our contributions to the conservation of our natural, built and cultural heritage. We provide an enjoyable experience for all tourists, greater understanding of the depth of local culture, who we are and what makes us Irish different, our history, heritage, the various social and environmental issues affecting us and the wider EU population. We will be culturally sensitive, encourage respect from tourists and the local population and thereby build confidence. We support many local charities, from the St. Vincent de Paul to the RNLI, encourage the use of public transport to visit local attractions. We are currently advocating a campaign to have Rail brought back to Donegal to complete the circle by joining Derry to Sligo. We have been for 12 years to the forefront in campaigning for a local rural transport initiative in South Donegal. We have a local eco-tour bus operator who runs on vegetable oil available for hire.
We assess economic impacts at our Donegal self catering cottages before developing any new tourism activity and exercise that development so that local communities benefit and minimise negative impacts on local livelihood. We recognise that tourism and large developments may not always be the most appropriate form of local economic development. We maximise local economic benefits by increasing linkages, by involving local communities so they can benefit from tourism wherever possible, and use these links to assist in poverty reduction.
At our Donegal self catering cottages we develop quality products that reflect and enhance the destination, market tourism in ways that the natural cultural and social integrity of the destination. We pay and charge fair prices and build partnerships in ways in which risk is minimised, and recruit and employ staff recognizing international labour standards.
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We support local charities by helping with fund raising, being supportive by attending meetings, joining in activities e.g. quiz nights, car boot sales, the local charity shop and giving unwanted items to these fund raising events.
We aim to comply with all relevant environmental legislation, reduce our use of non-renewable resources and of energy produced from such resources, reduce waste and pollution deriving from what we do, and use all resources efficiently. We pass on our knowledge to our staff and local community. We bring environmental considerations more explicitly into our corporate thinking and decision making process conserve and improve the built and natural environment. We encourage wild life, provided bird tables and nesting boxes from re-cycled wood. We reduce water flow, collect rain water for flowers and gardens and the compost pit, changed our laundry policy and use only natural products, we use wind electricity, have turn off lights signs visible to guests, we compost and recycle all waste. Water reduction systems are placed on showers, sinks, toilets etc, and we have signs asking guests not to run water unnecessarily. We save energy by using all energy efficient bulbs, making guests aware of turning off lights etc when leaving rooms.
We recycle all our cardboard and paper, compost all natural kitchen waste, dogs eat all cooked leftovers, we recycle all bottles, and glass etc. We keep any hazardous waste for collection at the local depot. We changed to natural electricity, encourage wildlife by having bird tables, in the garden we also feed the birds. Hares, rabbits and foxes often appear to eat any leftovers.
Community
We provide sufficient support and help in every way to support and advertise small, medium enterprises, so they will thrive and remain sustainable. We actively involve the local community in planning and decision making and provide capacity building to make this a reality. We employ local people, buy from farmers markets everything locally produced, we always recommend local attractions and places of interest, the spin off from tourists assist local shops, filling stations, restaurants and local tradesmen are employed to do repairs.
Landscape
We also provide more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people and a greater understanding of local cultural social and environmental issues, ie. traditional music, dance, story-telling etc. drama, art exhibitions, and Ballytour a local street drama over the summer.
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