Responsible Tourism

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This is our Responsible Tourism Policy. For more information about our responsible approach please click here

Responsible Tourism Policy 

Traidcraft’s mission is to ‘fight poverty through trade’.  It strives to achieve this through showing a bias to the poor, transparency and accountability.

Scope of this policy

This policy provides guidelines for all of Traidcraft’s activities in the tourism sector including Traidcraft’s Meet the People Tours. The Meet the People Tours are a meeting of many worlds designed to provoke questions and stimulate debate about the best way forward for our complex planet, divided as we are into rich and poor, the empowered and the dis-empowered.

It is about taking those who have many life choices and freedoms to meet those who have few, in a way that builds bridges and understanding between people. As a small but essential by-product, we aim to leave those we visit better off and more empowered than before.

A Responsible Approach

Our tours are designed to be run responsibly and seek to:

  • respect all people - both travellers and those who provide services to them
  • work with local partners in all countries in which we operate ensuring local people benefit economically and socially from our visit
  • ensure that guides and others involved are paid a fair wage
  • respect the environment, minimise impact on resources and the natural environment and encourage recycling where possible
  • respect local culture and traditions and report on our impact on them
  • build links with locally based tourism projects that have a pro-poor focus
  • operate in line with all Traidcraft’s existing best practice policies towards suppliers
  • ensure travellers are given advice on how they can travel more responsibly

We make no grand claims for how these tours will change the world, but we do believe that they will change those who go on them and those who are visited by them.

‘Fair Trade’ Tourism

The following principles will apply in defining Traidcraft’s approach to ‘fair trade’ tourism:

  • Wherever possible, geographical areas will be targeted in which both Traidcraft plc and Traidcraft Exchange are already operating.
  • Focus on destinations that provide opportunities to maximise benefits for the poor. Tourism activities should preserve the natural and cultural resources of destinations, while producing better livelihoods and higher standards of living for local residents.
  • Work with in-country organisations that ensure the involvement of local communities in order to guarantee the sustainable development of the tourism sector and the communities themselves, as well as encouraging maximum income retention by host communities. Ensure that tourism operations do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people so ensuring that our type and scale of tourism is appropriate to local conditions.
  • An intention to develop relationships of partnership and co-operation between Traidcraft and in-country tour operators that are expected to last for at least the medium term and are mutually beneficial and equitable.
  • The in-country tour operator will be paid a fair price for their work.
  • Advance payments will be made to the in-country tour operator, as appropriate.
  • Wherever possible, customers to stay in hotels that provide good working conditions for their staff and use local produce and materials so that small-scale producers benefit from their operation.
  • Links to the local economy to be maximised, by using local products and services wherever possible.   E.g. Traidcraft Meet the People Tours will stay in small, family-run hotels and guesthouses, eat in local restaurants and use local transport as much as possible.
  • Limit the number of tours per itinerary (up to 3 per year) to balance economic benefits with respectful cultural impact
  • Fair trade between customers/tourists and local people:
    - informed and responsible tourists fostering a mutually beneficial exchange with local people  
      and respecting their culture
    - tourists paying a fair market price
    - local people charging a fair market price

Tourism and the Environment

In all its tourism activities, Traidcraft will aim to protect and preserve the ecological and cultural environment by:

  • respecting the environment, minimising impact on resources and the natural environment, and encouraging recycling where possible
  • supporting and visiting eco-projects where appropriate
  • respecting local culture and traditions

In-country Tour Operator

Traidcraft will work with small-scale, in-country tour operators who:

  • Recruit and train local employees and include pro poor issues in staff training, to enable tourism to have a positive impact on poverty.
  • Source goods and services locally wherever possible.
  • Work with local people and producer groups in delivering the itinerary.
  • Ensure that a local guide accompanies all group visits to local communities.
  • Pay producer groups a contribution for any visits made that disrupt their normal working routine.
  • Provide a facility for tourists to donate to community projects.
  • Consult producer groups, clarify expectations and obtain their permission in advance of any visit to their premises.

Traidcraft will work with the in-country tour operator on developing appropriate Meet the People tours.

Commitment to the Customer

Traidcraft is committed to its customers participating in the Meet the People Tours through:

  • Keeping group sizes to a maximum of 14 people to minimise impact on the local people, environment and wildlife.
  • Providing accurate pre-trip information and running trip specific briefing days concerning the destination countries including the social and political situation.
  • Providing customers with information on the importance of fair trade tourism. This will include informing customers how and why purchasing locally produced goods and services - souvenirs, crafts, meals and guides (all of which can enhance the travellers' experience) - from locally owned establishments has beneficial effect.
  • Providing customers with information and briefing on the local culture and traditions, appropriate forms of dress and behaviour.
  • Suggesting destination visits to appropriate local social projects with direct or indirect benefits to the host community.
  • Ensuring customers’ comfort and safety at all times.

It is the customer’s responsibility to:

  • attend the Traidcraft briefing session and ensure that they are culturally prepared and fully understand nature of the experience ahead of them;
  • be physically fit, as appropriate, for the tour.

Monitoring and Certification

All local tour operators for Meet the People Tours will receive a partnership review visit from Traidcraft at least once every three years and a partnership agreement will be drafted/reviewed between both parties.

Traidcraft’s social accounting process will be used to monitor Traidcraft’s conduct in its relationships with in-country tour operators.

We will review this policy to identify new priorities and actions as necessary.

As the organiser, manager and operator of Traidcraft Meet the People Tours, in addition to the above, Saddle Skedaddle follows the following policy for all holidays it operates.

Saddle Skedaddle Tourism Policy

Global adventures start with a local perspective. Saddle Skedaddle biking and multi-activity holidays and Traidcraft Meet the People Tours are designed to provide a quality experience for our customer while respecting the environment, the traditions, way of life and cultural practices of the local people and their country and contribution positively to the local economy.
 
Our holidays enable people to travel at a pace only small groups allow, making the most of what each country has to offer while sensitively interacting with its people, their way of life and their natural environment. We recognise that in operating our holidays we have a responsibility to respect other people’s places and ways of life. As such our aim is to be responsible in the way we impact on a destination. We will inform our clients about our travel policy and encourage them to participate through their own actions and activities. Through our own practices and through work with our suppliers and partners we will aim to achieve the following:
 
Protect the Environment and conserve natural resources

  • Encourage our staff to cycle, walk or use public transport to work.
  • Operate recycle paper systems in the office and use print cartridges that are recycled
  • Use recycled and environmentally friendly paper for our promotional publications and letter-head.
  • Provide travellers with Travellers Codes that encourage the reduction of water usage, systems for collecting, recycling or safe disposal of litter and relevant suggestions to minimise damage to the environment, wildlife and marine ecosystems.
  • In each destination we will aim to work with or encourage local destination partners to work with appropriate local projects with direct or indirect environmental benefits.
  • We will design holidays with a maximum group size of 12 to 15 people minimising both the social and environmental impact.
  • While recognising the need for motor vehicle support and back up in certain circumstances we will where possible use locally owned and appropriate vehicles and look to minimise their impact on the natural environment.

Provide economic benefits to the people and places we visit

  • In all our destinations we will work with small local destination companies or locally based people that contribute fully to the local economy and employ local guides.
  • We will aim to work with these partners on a long-term basis developing close, transparent and mutually beneficial working relationships.
  • We aim to ensure that the local supplier, their employees and guides receive a fair wage for their activities measured by locally appropriate standards.
  • Working with local people in designing itineraries and holidays we will aim to use small locally owned accommodation, equipment and food providers that employ local people.
  • In each destination we will inform travellers of the ways in which they can do more to ensure their purchases or activities benefit the local economy.

Respect local cultures and communities

  • In all our destinations we work with smaller local suppliers or locally based people that employ local guides who understand and work with local communities to provide authentic experiences in a sensitive way.
  • We will provide travellers with accurate pre-trip information on the social and political situation and with suggestions of ways to minimise negative impacts on local cultures.
  • Where appropriate our holidays will involve local guides to accompany visits to local communities
  • Working with local people in the design of our holidays we will only visit areas where local people are happy to be visited and do so in a way that supports understanding of the local community.
  • In each destination we will inform travellers of the ways in which they can do more to benefit local social projects with direct or indirect benefits to the host community.

As a company, within the constraints of our organisation’s size, we will encourage and support practices and policies that ensure that the benefits of the world’s tourism industry are maximised for the local economies and ideally have a positive impact on the broader development and specifically poverty of the countries visited.

Developing responsible tourism policy and tours is an ongoing process. Let us know your thoughts on our tours and how you feel they could be more responsible and on our policy more generally. Email info@skedaddle.co.uk

 

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