Swotah Travel and Adventure

How the minimum criteria of the responsible travel standard was met...

Economic responsibility

We are local company so mostly all our employees are local people who were born and raised in Nepal. All our guides are local Nepali from different regions of Nepal. We train them, provide them with all the needed equipment, insurance, food and salary. They do not work only for tips. Same with porters – we fully supply them with clothes, shoes, food, accommodation and insurance.
We believe that society should benefit from our activities and we aim to contribute to social equality by providing scholarships to the children of porters and villagers from the remote areas of Nepal. We earmark a portion (5%-10%) of the revenues from our trips for financing the education of children who would otherwise never be schooled. Some of them are listed below:
1. Child Sponsorship Programs in different schools of remote Nepal
2. Yearly Sponsorship for the children of the porters
3. Promoting homestay and local business
4. Responsible tourism and cleanliness program
5. Volunteering program for Dolphin research in Koshi Tappu and Karnali river

Environmental responsibility

We do not promote anything that can hurt or damage wildlife. All the garbage is always carried away by our porters in order to recycle it. We do not promote bottled mineral water to create plastic free zone. Our solution is to boil water and use purifying tablets. In this way we can use only one bottle for water during the experience. Instead of making our clients buying new equipment for one time use we provide rental service where they can use during the trek and then return to us. As mentioned before we have volunteering program for Doplhin research in Koshi Tappu and Karnali river. Nobody knows there are dolphins in Nepal and they are very rare. 
Government doesn't support much to increase the population of this rare 
spieces. So our aim is to promote tours called "dolphin watching in 
Nepal" and attract more attention and collect donations. We cooperate 
with the Department of Watershed Management and Environmental Science 
also Tribhuvan University in Pokhara tightly in order to find the ways 
to keep waters clean and do scince research on theirs life and behavior.

1. We do not print out tickets or contracts or any other documents but 
always sending soft copies unless our clients ask us to print for them.
Also we print on both sides of the paper.
Our brochures, tours, cards and so on are digital versions and without 
special reason we do not keep printed ones in the office or somewhere 
else. Again, unless it is required for special reason.
2. Our guides are well trained and they know all the stops during the 
trek where everyone can refill their water instead of buying mineral 
water in plastic each time. We always use water purifier tablets to 
clean the water for drinking and we always warn our clients to bring one 
bottle to be used during the trek.
3. Yes, on the briefing we tell our travelers not to feed wild animals 
and not to leave any food open as it can cause damage to their habitat, 
poisoning or simply make animals used to humans or even attack them to 
get more food.
We train our porter and guides to carry all the trash with them and same 
we demand from our clients as it is something that everyone should 
follow no matter what style you are traveling.
4. Yes, we do. As we mentioned before, Millennium Homestay Trek to 
promote and benefit local villages. We have scholarship programs based 
on this trek, dolphin research. We try to promote more not that popular 
treks and regions to create a balance for travelers as Everest Base Camp 
is popular nd overcrowded meanwhile Dhaulagiri trek is always crowdless 
and more fascinating.

Social responsibility

It is our strong belief that a journey into the mountains is a journey to the inner self. Mountains help us to find alignment in our lives. At Swotah, we are happy to not only be discovering ourselves but also to help others do the same on their inner journey. We believe that to understand the grandeur of life, and to value the importance of what nature has to offer, one has to be in the mountains.  It is our commitment to keep this belief alive and bring awareness to others.  
Under project SWOTAH, we have undertaken the responsibility of inspiring people to be in the mountains and fulfilling their needs while they’re there. We are a team of travelers, and we believe that nobody understands a traveler better than another traveler. We're committed to delivering reliable, courteous, and customizable services with a keen eye on value. 
 
We have our unique tour “Millennium Homestay Trek” which promotes local villages, Newari culture, more than 10 ethnic groups. We do support local farmers as we don’t give them just money as donation but we buy from them food they grow and donate it to schools. In this way we still support agriculture by stimulating the demand in suppliers. We want to make Newari culture respected and for this we encourage local villagers to perform and show the rituals, dances and songs as part of the experience.

1. Yes, all our travelers are very well informed about itinerary, any 
possible changes, recommendations as it is our responsibility for them 
not to have any surprises and to be safe.
2. Yes, we always recommend to our travelers be humble, not to demand in 
Nepal western culture. We ask to respect the way people are living, 
service they provide and as the proverb says "in Rome do as Romans do" 
for best experience in Nepal we ask them in Nepal do as Nepali do. 
That's the best way to dive into our culture and get the most of it.
3. Yes, we ensure. Our guides never leave their groups and always there 
to assist.
4. Yes, as mentioned before, we support local farmers, handcrafters, 
homestays and so on as we are local company here we want the best to our 
country.
5. Before visiting and meeting ethnic communities we explain a little 
bit more about our culture and remind our travelers to be opened to 
everything, be humble and observe around. In this way our local 
communities learn about western culture as well. They also learn how to 
communicate with foreigners, how to keep houses and territory cleaner, 
cook food safely and how to share the moments with others.