Responsible Travel

To put into pratice our ideas we have adopted several strategies:

As far as possible we use local people to act in support of our trips.
We personally get to know our guides and design our trips in conjunction with them.
Our own staff in the field are expected to run trips in as sustainable a manner as possible. For example; not only do they insist on removing their own rubbish but they will when practicable clean up after other less caring and more selfish groups. Our aim is always to leave campsites in a better state than we have found them.
Discussing with National Park and other authorities problem areas and working with them to find solutions
Our staff ensure our clients are given clear guidance on dealing with litter, toilet issues, on prevention of water pollution, firewood usage and personal hygiene.
Discussing with staff and client groups how to interact with local people they meet, eg with regard to awareness of local customs, introductions, employment, photography, handling children, gifts.
Ensuring we use operators who provide good quality of equipment for their staff and clients and ensure that their staff have acceptable work loads.
We aim to help charities and organisations working to improve conditions in overseas areas we are associated with by direct help. Some of the local community schemes we are currently involved in promoting include:
We encourage all participants in our trips to follow our Responsible Tourism strategies as outlined above as part of out Booking Conditions.

Whilst we are constantly seeking to improve, it is not possible to achieve all our goals equally efficiently in all locations. We are continually discussing with our staff and agents ways of improving our style of operation and we have policies in place with most of our ground operators. Below is a sample Eco Tourism policy adopted by us and agents in Tanzania.

EWP Ecotourism (Tanzania)
We ask our clients to respect local environments and promote local projects, products and producers. In particular:

Assist local economies by purchasing local products instead of exotic ones and to avoid those made from endangered indigenous wood such as ebony or bamba kofi.
Avoid purchasing items such as pieces of coral, large shells or turtle shells which encourage the destruction of the coral reef and ocean fauna.
Not to remove any natural objects such as flora or sea shells.
Not to harass wildlife or marine life.
Not to leave litter. Please take all litter back from the mountains or safaris unless responsibly disposed of by your trip guides.
Water is precious - please use it sparingly.
Respect the customs of the local population. In towns, particular at the coast or on Zanzibar women are requested to cover their shoulders and wear knee length skirts or trousers and not to go topless on the beaches where there are local people. In towns men should not go shirtless.
Please ask before taking photos of people or private houses.
Alcohol is freely available but drunken behaviour is offensive.
Not to give presents of money to children nor to accept services from unlicensed people.

Where possible we try to help local communities and involve them in our programs and camps. For this reason porters and guides are recruited from the locality of the trip being arranged. For example, at Ikoma camp we contribute to the local Maasai community and this also applies to several other campsites that we use in Maasai country. We are actively involved in conservation and development issues in Kilimanjaro National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We support and promote our porters and guides through their association ensuring they are not exploited and that they are fairly paid. We promote any organisation that benefits their local community, for example we try to use accommodation such as is provided by the St Eugene Sisters in Usambara.

Responsible Travel, Ecotourism Policy

& our Ecotourism Policy