Mekong cruise in Laos
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We encourage all of our travellers to travel responsibly and offer advice on how they can best help local people through charitable donations and the purchase of certain goods. We also offer guidance, both verbal and written, on how travellers can best help and preserve the local environment.
This company is also committed to measuring and assuming responsibility for our carbon emissions. We have worked with Cleaner Climate to offset emissions from our Australian, United Kingdom and USA offices during 2011. The emission reductions are generated from Clean Technology (Kyoto compliant) projects in India (run-of-river hydro), Thailand (rice husk biomass), and China (hydro). These not only reduce emissions, but also contribute to the sustainable development of disadvantaged communities.
Community
We believe that travel should entail an exchange of knowledge and perspectives, a sharing of wealth, and a genuine appreciation of Vietnam’s beautiful natural environment. This philosophy underpins the heart and soul of our style of travel. We recognise that well-planned itineraries and well-informed tourists contribute positively to cross-cultural understanding and the livelihoods of local people.
On this journey our local guides are trained to share their knowledge of cultural and other local issues in a balanced, informative way; in this journey alone you are likely to meet several local guides from different areas across the country. They share real experiences from their own lives and insights into family life, influences and beliefs, thus providing our travellers with a deeper understanding of the places they visit. This is what motivates our guides, not shopping commissions.
The Vat Phou cruises stops at a handful of local villages throughout the journey. At each village guests may donate to local community projects which include school construction and supplies. The cruise company itself also directly contributes to many local causes, including school projects s well as supporting local monasteries.
When it comes to food and produce the on-board chefs source local produce wherever possible and applicable. All leftover food from our cruises is given to local villagers to help feed their livestock, while all cans, bottles and plastic are recycled.
Our operations head offices in Vietnam (Saigon, Danang and Hanoi) Cambodia (Phnom Penh) are also staffed with local people wherever possible and we have a long term aim of filling management roles with competent local staff. This presence in Vietnam means we are much better able to control the content, the actions of our suppliers, and the style of our small group journey.
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