Eritrea highlights tour

Planet

This tour travels through some very remote regions, many of which have barely been touched by the presence of humans, and we strongly believe in maintaining their pristine nature. We strive to ensure that we leave these areas as we find them and our team have been trained in strict no litter policies, meaning that we take all refuse to either be recycled or properly disposed of in nearby towns. When exploring the landscape on foot we make sure that we stick to whatever tracks there may be, and when driving we stick to the dirt roads so as not to degrade the landscape.

Eritrea as a nation has only existed since becoming independent of Ethiopia in 1993, and up until recently has seen very little in the way of tourism. We believe it is incredibly important that at this early stage of tourism development we work with local service providers to set and implement best practice, so that this becomes the norm as tourist numbers increase. In conjunction with our local team we work with the guesthouses and hotels to help them to implement best practice in terms of environmental issues, from energy conservation to waste disposal. We also help to educate local guides and drivers about how not to negatively impact upon the areas visited. Western norms with regards to this are quite different from local concepts, so this can be a challenge but we are confident that we can help to develop environmentally responsible tourism practices in Eritrea.

People

This tour visits some villages belonging to the Kunama people, one of Eritrea's most isolated and traditional groups. The Kunama have traditionally been rather wary of outsiders and we feel that it is important that we respect their traditions and behave appropriately here; thus all travellers are carefully briefed on this. Where we stop to visit communities we ensure that our presence is welcomed – we do not want to treat the Kunama as an exotic exhibit just to be photographed, but consult with tribal elders carefully. Photography can be a sensitive subject and so we ask all travellers to respect the wishes of local people in this respect.

We also sometimes offer donations to settlements and family groups – not financial but rather material goods which they may need and appreciate, and which can be hard to come by in the desert regions, such as tea and sugar.

We employ local Kunama guides for part of this trip, meaning that this community is able to benefit financially from the presence of tourism in their homeland.