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Responsible Travel
As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) holiday so that you can travel knowing it will help support the places and people that you visit, and the planet. Read how below.
Planet
Environment The very ethos of our style of travel is responsible; small groups on fully escorted tours, experiencing the very best of a region, a culture and a landscape, with a friendly local hand guiding the way. Our itineraries are designed to give our travellers real life experiences without compromising the part of the world we are exploring; to travel responsibly is at the heart of our commitment as a global tour operator. This trip takes in a number of major archaeological sites including Pammukale and Ephesus, where you may have a local site guide with your group as well as your group leader. The entrance fee to all sites goes towards the continued upkeep of these very special slices of history, but the part we play is bigger than that. We ask all our travellers to respect the sites we are visiting. Our group leader will always be on hand to assist in the responsible disposal of rubbish. We aim to recycle wherever possible, and the group leader will encourage the group to take rubbish with us until it can be discarded appropriately.
Transport As part of our responsible travel philosophy we use local forms of transport wherever possible. Where this is not possible we endeavour to ensure we are using private transport suitable for our small groups. For example, minivans instead of large coaches or buses. We will always ensure that the vehicles is an appropriate size to suit the group size. For instance, we wouldn’t use a 16-seater van if we only have five people travelling with us. We plan our routes of travel so that we spend as little time as possible travelling.
Waste In an effort to reduce single use plastic during this trip we provide reusable cloth bag to all of our travellers. Many Turkish hotels and operator provide small single use bottles of water. So, it’s easy to use plastic excessively, especially in the summer time. However, we know that small steps can make a big difference and we encourage travellers to use refillable water bottles and purification tablets rather than purchasing water in plastic bottles on tour, thus helping to minimise waste. We are working with a number of our hotels to provide refillable water stations for our travellers, and we also encourage our travellers to buy a large 5-10 litre bottles to refill their small bottle. We are working with suppliers to encourage them to do the same.
Water Our Local Tour Leaders encourage our passengers to shorter showers and to re-use their towels as there is as there is a four-night stay on this trip, simply alerting the housekeeping department that towels don’t need replacing means less washing and aids in the preservation of water.
People
Campaigning for Change In a country where the work force is dominated by males our local operations team created an initiative to improve gender equality across their supply chain by sourcing more female-owned and operated businesses as suppliers, but to support women to either improve their existing business, or to get a new business off the ground. The initiative provides supplier training for current and potential female suppliers.
Travelling with Respect Our Responsible Travel Policy outlines our commitment to preserving the environment, supporting local communities, protecting the vulnerable, and giving back to the places we travel. All our trip leaders, suppliers, and staff are trained on these principles and are core to us delivering sustainable, experience-rich travel. We encourage travellers to dress conservatively with legs and arms covered when entering religious sites, and small communities. We also take care to form genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with local people.
A fair deal We use our own local operator who employs local Turkish Tour Leaders. They offer fair work practices in line with local authorities. All employees have the opportunity to train further and we provide on-line training platforms for further training and deliver face to face training on an annual basis. Our local Operator is also committed to improving gender equality across the supply chain by sourcing, supporting, and training more female suppliers.
