Responsible Travel Policy
We are proud to hold a 3 Star Sustainable Travel Accreditation from AITO (The Association of Independent Tour Operators) of which we are proud members.
We believe that responsible travel is a partnership between us as a tour operator, and you as our customer.
We have outlined here our commitments and how we support them:
1). Encourage guests to fully explore the country, gain a genuine appreciation of the country and its people and foster cross cultural understanding through:
• Knowledgeable pre-departure itinerary planning. Working with and listening to each customer – treating them as individuals and catering for their tastes. This means a happier experience for them and their hosts’ in-country.
• We only organise small group, tailor made travel with a focus on ‘experience’ to foster cross-cultural understanding.
2). Ensure our guests are well informed travellers through:
• Provision of comprehensive pre-departure travel information.
• Provision of an in-country welcome pack with information on major sites, activities, local eating, shopping and basic language we have found useful.
3).Ensure wealth is spread around the community and not concentrated on small sections and interest groups:
• We take no shopping or food commissions, neither do our ground handlers. We prefer to leave guests as free as possible to make their own decisions. Our profits are made from commissions on hotels, activities and transport.
• We encourage a tipping policy which encourages excellent service and discourages over reliance on commissions.
4). Ensure our travel partners are treated equitably and fairly:
• We work with a responsible and progressive local supplier – this also adds to our own local and cultural knowledge with ongoing dialogue and partnership.
• We do not knowingly work with suppliers who flagrantly breach local laws or regulations or who act unethically.
• Our suppliers and travel partners have all signed up to and pledged to support our 'Sustainable Travel Policy for Experience Travel's Partners' (please ask if you would like to see a copy of this).
5).Ensure we contribute towards the country and community in a fair and open way:
• We pay local taxes in full – we do not exploit loopholes in the law to avoid paying Thai(or UK!) sales tax. All our itineraries include local sales tax and a service charge. We believe tourists’ have a duty to contribute directly in this way.
• We endeavor to work only with legally registered and tax compliant suppliers.
• We made our own contribution to the tsunami relief programme – the directors were founder members of a UK registered charity which ran for 18 months after this unprecedented disaster: www.aidsrilanka.org. (Please note that ‘Aid Sri Lanka’ was completely independent of our company.)
