Jetwing Eco Holidays
Jetwing Eco Holidays focuses on wildlife enthusiasts and photographers. It operates as a small team with a dedicated operations team in the office and a team of fanatical naturalists. It is the preferred choice of visiting photographers, birdwatchers, wildlife film crews and wildlife enthusiasts.
The company pioneered leopard safaris, elephant safaris (especially The Gathering), primate safaris and butterfly and dragonfly watching. The field staff are unrivalled in Sri Lanka for their expertise, with some being trained overseas in Europe and Asia. The company is constantly developing naturalist guiding skills for Asia and have published photographic field guides to animals popular in the west but in need of more attention in Asia. As a result it has also emerged as a leading wildlife book publisher.
The company takes inspiration from European conservation organisations and has also emerged as an influential voice for wildlife conservation. Its web site is the most comprehensive on-line source of information on wildlife in Sri Lanka.
Member since: 18 Jun 2007
How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...
Economic responsibility
- A significant amount of time and the company's profits are allocated to being an advocate of conservation so that the very resources the company depends are conserved for future generations.
- We operate a publishing division and produce series of field guides on birds, mammals, butterflies and dragonflies as tools to spread the message for conservation. We distribute copies to our guides, as well as schools and societies.
- We use locally owned accommodations, hire safari jeeps for wildlife safaris from local suppliers and use small local operators at national parks. Almost all our tours are sold on HB basis, which means clients eat lunch or snacks at local restaurants.
Environmental responsibility
- We support the research and conservation of Leopards at Yala and provide the forest department guides at Sinharaja Rainforest with books and professional advice for conservation of the virgin forest.
- We invite members of RSPB – UK to spend their sabbatical holidays at Jetwing Hotels. We provide accommodation for them at research stations at the hotels and they work on nature related projects relevant to the hotel and its surroundings.
- We provide accommodation for our clients at hotels, which strictly follow environmentally friendly practices such as waste management and water recycling. Wildlife protection is a natural habit of our naturalist guides as its part of their job to help preserve them.
Social responsibility
- Our focus is to create a stable flow of work and revenues and enhance skill levels of local communities so that they can earn better wages as suppliers for wildlife travel instead of adding to the pressure of depleting forests.
- The Jetwing group as a whole may in the course of a year undertake over fifty small scale social projects varying from teaching English to donating equipment to local hospitals.
- Jon Ashworth, former Business Editor of Times UK, travelled with us post tsunami and has now set up a charity covering a village in the south (Kirinda), with one of our naturalist guides as a trustee. Our clients visit this charity when they stay at Yala.
