Southern Thailand holiday, tailor made

Planet

In Khao Sok, guests will stay at the environmentally-conscious Elephant Hills Luxury Camp. Specifically designed to care for sick and injured elephants, the sanctuary is directly supported by proceeds from the Camp. Elephant Hills Luxury Camp makes it a priority to return elephants to the wild, which they do with their extensive re-introduction programme.

The Camp has won multiple awards for its ecologically-sound practices and prides itself on connecting guests to nature in a manner that is respectful of wildlife’s privacy and mindful of human impact on their habitat.

This tour of Southern Thailand takes in a number of national parks and scenic rural areas. In locations such as these, income from tourism is a major driver in preserving natural resources, ensuring habitat is protected and biodiversity supported. This is because your visit demonstrates to communities that the natural world is more financially valuable protected than exploited, and the money from supporting a light tourism infrastructure can be directly invested in protecting what is already there, but also in enhancing and, in some cases, even restoring habitat.

Wherever possible, the accommodations we work with on this tour source their food locally, from farmers who endeavour to use sustainable farming and fishing practices.

Our offices in the UK and in Bangkok take a leading role in setting the standard for an environmentally friendly work environment. Alongside ensuring that our waste is appropriately recycled, we have instituted a paperless work system, in which paper usage is kept to a bare minimum. We have also implemented a plastic ban in our offices, starting with coffee cups and single-use plastic drinks bottles, and expanding to encompass food packaging as far as possible. Each office has a designated ‘sustainability officer’, who helps to implement programmes and answer questions, whilst all team members are able to set the environmental agenda by highlighting their ideas on a specific sustainability channel in our internal communications network.

People

The luxury tents at Elephant Hills Luxury Camp offer a stlyish experience and your stay also supports the local economy as well as conservation efforts. The local community is heavily engaged in the running of the camp and it provides fantastic employment prospects to members of the community.

We employ local guides and support staff who we pay fair wages, often exceeding government standards which we still consider too low, and thereby remove the reliance on tipping from travellers for livelihoods.

Our accommodation choices make use of locally owned properties where possible and often include adventurous, authentic choices such as local homestays which therefore involve local people and their communities in the very fabric of our holidays.

We encourage all our travellers to research local customs and read your trip notes before you depart to ensure you are conscientious and respectful in a different culture.

In most cases we strongly recommend that you do not give money to children beggars. If begging is a successful enterprise, parents are encouraged to forsake their children’s education in pursuit of this opportunity.

Talk to us about packing for a purpose and see if you can get involved by making a small material contribution to the communities you are visiting. We have developed partnerships with charities and accommodations throughout Southeast Asia and are constantly working to extend our reach with the help of our travellers.