Jordan cultural holiday

All of the tour guides, drivers and support staff that operate this tour are Jordanian. These tours provide crucial income to the families and communities who help us run them. A minimum of 75% of the total income from the cost of this holiday remains in the country.

Many Bedouin families choose to live a traditional desert dwelling life-style. However, in the present day they also need an income, which can be provided through tourism. All our Jordan trips help local Bedouins by giving them regular work, either as jeep driver or camel guide, and paying them a fair daily wage. The majority of 3* or 4* hotels are small-scale and locally owned, so Jordanians benefit directly through hotel earnings and employment. The tour selectively uses locally owned restaurants and visits traditional Jordanian markets for gift shopping.

For all of our tours we provide customers with an itinerary specific responsible travel guide aprox 4 weeks before they depart. This includes a generic travellers code of conduct which emphasises basic responsible travel advice – e.g. reduction of waste and consumption of natural resources, purchase local produce where possible etc. Our holidays are specifically designed to bring guests into direct contact with locals from a range of different tribes and cultures across Africa. We also therefore provide destination specific guidance including advice on local customs and some key phrases in certain languages (e.g. Swahili). We also offer guidance on how to barter responsibly for local curios and what curios should be avoided (e.g. certain wildlife artefacts such as coral, turtle shells etc.). As all of our guides and groundhandlers are local we also give guidance on what a fair and reasonable level of tipping would be at the end of the holiday.

We support the work of Tourism Concern both in distributing their advice to customers and as an active participant in the Ethical Tour Operators Group. Our managing director sits on this group and is a regular attendee of meetings contributing to work towards developing industry wide fair trade standards. We also distribute materials to customers and make periodic donations for the following charities: Tree Aid; International Fund for Wildlife and Survival International Trust. In Southern Africa we support the Southern Africa Sustainable Seafood Initiative and forward their guidance to all customers on which seafood is sustainable when offered a choice at restaurants.