Armenia trekking holiday in the Caucasus mountains
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
This hiking holiday contributes to the environment by enhancing awareness of the Khosrov Nature Park and Dilijan Natioanl Park in Armenia. The journey introduces travellers to a variety of landscapes, unique flora and fauna of the national parks. Rich historical heritage is another reason why we spend a days in these areas.
Since our hiking groups are small, the impact on the natural and cultural environment is minimal. Moreover, before travelling to these fragile environments travellers receive information on the standards and guidelines of the national park and acceptable forms of behaviour / consumption (for example we cannot have campfires in some restricted areas and the food provided can be just cold snacks).
In Khosrov Nature Park travellers use the services of park team, stay in park shelters, use park trail system thus contributing to the conservation and further development of the park and its infrastructure.
Travelling in fragile environments like Mount Aragats, the highest peak in Armenia, we are very careful not to leave marks that would remain for generations. Even a simple tyre track may damage the brittle crust that holds the soil in place or even change the course of a small stream bed thus diverting what little available water there might have been away from small plants and shrubs that have grown to depend upon it.
On our hiking holidays (which mostly visit protected areas) maximum group size is 8 persons – this decision was made to comply with the guidelines of protected areas – to help minimize the waste, noise and other type of impact which are critical in these environments (for example in Lake Arpi Trans Boundary National Park in Armenia and Georgia during the birding tours we take a boat trip to the island on the lake where birds nest – we do not take more than 3 people on one trip to this island).
Community
This hiking adventure contributes to the development of local community in Northern and Southern Armenia as travellers experience the region through interaction with the locals – the trails we use on this tour have been developed by local community representatives, during the tours they act as guides, they provide horses and other support needed for the tour as well as host travellers in farmhouses which have been converted to be used as tourist accommodation.
Not only travellers receive information about the uniqueness and richness of the environments they visit. The people that host travellers benefit from this interaction – they see how their identity is respected and valued and are empowered to continue to provide the best of service to travellers restoring their village architecture, renewing their traditional techniques and cuisine, preserving the unique fabric and style of their properties, limiting the number of rooms and dispersing travellers across villages, monitoring the nature and wildlife in their area. The importance of preserving the unspoilt and authentic environment thus becomes key in their operation – this is the essence of true sustainable tourism.
We help them in this quest – developing their own model of sustainable tourism as we are the first point of contact with travellers and travel partners around the world. We come in touch with interesting practices developed in other countries (including during our interaction with organizations like ResponsibleTravel.com), we request feedback from our travellers. All this is passed to our local partners to help them improve their practices.
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