Burma hot air balloon festival holiday

Planet

We are committed to running our business and tours in a way that is environmentally, culturally and socially responsible. We encourage our guests and suppliers to work with us to travel and operate in a way that conserves and protects the areas we visit and bring positive benefits to local communities. We are therefore committed to continual improvement in our environmental performance, preventing pollution and minimising our effects through a complete programme of annual reviews of our expeditions and try to make our activities environmentally and socially positive.

Our local agent does this in a number of ways including:

Environment
Waste: As an environmentally friendly company we have policies for waste disposal and management. We ensure that all the waste that we generate is disposed of as per environmental regulations and in keeping with best practice. In the first instance, we encourage the use of as much bio-degradable or renewable materials as possible for packaging, cooking, toiletries etc.

Energy saving: Energy saving is not only important for environmental protection purposes but it is equally important to reduce overheads. We promote the use of energy efficient devices in all areas we touch including travel, lighting, cooking or accommodation.

Water saving: While Myanmar is not short of water, finding clean water is becoming an issue as is the way it is packaged in plastic bottles. As such we ensure that our guests are advised to be very sparing in the use of plastic bottles and wherever possible to use spring water with tablets rather than endless bottled water which means taking more plastic bottles into the rural environment. Also many hotels have policies designed to promote the judicial use of water and washing detergents which we actively encourage.

Advising travellers to reduce impact:
Myanmar has a rich cultural heritage and strict observance of local customs and traditions is part of the experience of travelling there. Removing shoes before entering temples and being modestly dressed are advised to all our clients as there is no excuse for offending deep held local beliefs and customs.

Conservation & education: Visits to places of historical, cultural and environmental significance is a key part of our Myanamar itineraries. Besides, we also promote visits to less exposed rural villages and remote areas as well as visits to nature conservation parks and hikes along ancient trails form a part of many of our Myanmar itineraries.

Our commitment to our environmental policy extends to our working environment and all staff recycle and make business decisions with an ethical dimension such as using public transport and maximising the use of email. We are committed to running a business that has as little environmental impact as possible. We ceased mailing out paper brochures in 2008.

People

Community
Local staff: All of our guides and their supporting staff are local Myanmar peoples and their selection based on experience and training and qualifications where appropriate. We treat our employees on terms no less favourable than those specified by the government’s labour laws with regard to wages, occupational health and safety, working hours etc. Unlike many travel companies we do not fly in non-local guides to lead trips. We believe this practice is outdated and deprives local people of important jobs and income in the longer term

Local purchasing policy: While it is our sincere endeavour to try and promote the use of as much local materials as possible, we cannot avoid using some foreign goods as Myanmar is partly dependent on imports. But wherever we have the option, we always encourage the use of locally produced, energy efficient and renewable goods.

Charity donations: Through its travel business we always try to facilitate contributions to monasteries, schools and villages where we come into contact with them . As we grow, it would be one of our long term objectives to make meaningful contributions to the society, both from ourselves, and through interested clients in one or more charity aided project.

Throughout our travels in Myanmar we interact and deal with local villagers, purchasing their goods and eating in the local restaurants where possible. We also stay in local homesteads for a few nights of the trip thus supporting the villagers who are paid a fee for their hospitality.