- employing people from local communities developing new routes and guiding and supporting our groups
- purchasing food and souvenirs produced by them
- using small family-run hotels or staying as guests with local families and a host of other ways in which locals’ involvement can happen.
Of course the ability of local people to provide services to international groups does not happen overnight; for 9 years we have invested time and energy into training the people in our key locations, helping them understand and cater for the needs of our clients. Currently we have appointed a responsible travel team that is looking on ways to enhance and fine-tune the above measures. We also plan on joining Travelife, an invaluable resource to train our staff, further develop and implement our responsible tourism policies and help us oversee the development of all our projects and practices in accordance with Responsible Travel guidelines.
Many of our tours like Hiking Armenia, Walk the Caucasus Mountains, TransCaucasus Jeep Tour and others visit national parks and nature reserves, namely Khosrov Nature Reserve and Dilijan National Park in Armenia and Borjomi Kharagauli National Park and Tusheti Protected Areas in Georgia.
Our cooperation with these reserves means that we:
- comply with their environmental guidelines during our tours
- work with their trained guides to accompany our travellers
- use park trails, camping areas and shelters for lodging.
The following are the main guidelines we use currently to ensure that people travel with AdvenTour responsibly:
- Using local transport - Where it is practical we use local transport during the trip and advise travelers to do so.
- Saving paper - We try to publish all our information online and print trip information sparingly.
- Being clever with luggage - We suggest measures that can reduce waste and damage to cultural and natural environment by our groups.
- Purchasing locally - We inform travelers that where possible we purchase locally produced goods and services - souvenirs, crafts, meals and how this enhances the quality of their experience and the quality of life for local community
- Visits and involvement in local projects - We create and offer opportunities to visit and interact with local culture and nature conservations projects
- Behavior and interaction with locals - We provide guidelines on behavior, clothing and general interaction when visiting small ethnic communities in remote places
