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Environment:
Our boat on this tour, the Montserrat, is one of only 8 boats to have achieved the Smart Voyager certification which is the highest environmental standard available in the Galapagos.
We are partners with the Rainforest Alliance; working with local hotels and suppliers to promote best management practices that will help local business reduce negative impacts and potentially obtain certification in sustainable tourism. Through training, workshops and by providing tools and resources, the Rainforest Alliance encourages the tourism industry to conserve local environments and contribute in a positive way to their local communities. We support the Rainforest Alliance by agreeing that a minimum of 50% of our night-stops on this tour will be in properties working towards certification in sustainable tourism, and by actively encouraging the other properties we work with to sign up to local sustainable tourism programmes.
We are also members of the Galapagos Conservation Trust and our fee gives a regular income to the organisation’s varied conservation, education and research projects. We encourage our customers to become members to support this worthwhile cause.
Though we always encourage people to reduce their impact on the environment by avoiding buying bottled water, all plastic water bottles which are used on this trip are collected by the Tour Leader and given to a local sugar cane processing company where they are reused, reducing our impact on the environment and supporting local enterprise.
Community:
In Ecuador you will be accompanied by our local staff, which is the best way to learn about the local culture and customs, as well as generating local employment through our business.
In 2009 our Ecuadorian Tour Leader Diego Torres was crowned overall winner at the prestigious “Wanderlust Paul Morrison Guide Awards”, thanks to his encyclopaedic knowledge, great empathy with his groups and his passionate concern for developing tourism in Ecuador in a sustainable and responsible way. Diego is donating his £5,000 bursary prize to the charity Proyecto DCR that gives vulnerable street kids in the capital Quito the chance to get an education. Diego comments: “It’s such a worthwhile project because it gives the children the potential to take charge of their futures. Instead of having to beg on the streets they can have a life with more dignity”.
This small group operator is just celebrating its 30th year and was originally set up to enrich people’s lives through adventure travel. The directors have roots in overland trucking and are determined to keep a pioneering spirit alive. They believe what sets them apart is the strong relationships they’ve developed with local suppliers and tour guides over the years. A tour leader who thinks creatively can turn a good experience into a fantastic one and open up a place so that travellers gain insight into a completely different way of life. They operate in many different countries and try to avoid a blanket approach – their aim is to get customers involved in the projects they visit and to forge lifelong friendships.
Listen to the podcast below:
We invite every traveller who books a holiday via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the holidays they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same holiday can have different views!
