r:travel, official magazine of the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2007

exclusive Your guide to the Virgin Holidays responsible tourism Awards

Go easy on the jets

Can we still fly with a clear conscience?

No way, Mandalay

Why we’re right to stay out of Burma

3

steps to holiday heaven

And the winner is...

The people and places making the best contributions to travel that respects destinations and benefits local communities

www.responsibletravel.com Holidays that respect destinations and local people

Caring ‘ORIGINAL REDBUSH TEA’ We take pride in our exclusive grade of rooibos, as well as the care we take to give back to the Kalahari Bushmen whose ancestors first discovered this remarkable herb.

Naturally caffeine free, low in tannin and rich in anti oxidants, our rooibos lacks only colourants, preservatives and additives – we are pretty sure you will be glad we left all that out. Indeed we hope our delicious tea will care for you just as well as we have.

To receive a FREE sample and discover what Redbush Tea can do for you call: 0845 601 2658 email: info@redbushtea.com or visit our website: www.redbushtea.com

Available from Asda, Booths, Budgens, Holland & Barrett, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and selected Co-operative Society and health food stores. Offer applies to UK and ROI residents only. One sample per household.

A percentage of profits from the sale of Redbush Tea are donated to the indigenous peoples of the Kalahari, www.kalaharipeoples.org

Editor’s Letter |

Jive talking

J

iving with the rather attractive head of the Serbian Tourist Board in a Belgrade blues club may not have been the most responsible way to open my eyes to the potential of tourism to be a force for good. But neither had I expected it to.

I’m not a responsible travel pioneer. I didn’t have my epiphany in an ecolodge in the Amazon rainforest, or while trekking in the Himalayas, I was visiting a country slouching in the shadows of Europe, that just a few years before had had NATO bombs raining down on it.

I was among a group of travel writers who were among the first to be taken to this Balkan hotspot not long after the Kosovan conflict. Serbia then was a country on the cusp. Either it embraced the rest of Europe, or it turned in on itself and sulked for several decades. Forces were at work on both sides.

As well as enjoying the nightlife of Belgrade, we were taken to Mt Kopaonik, a ski resort literally overlooking Kosovo. A satellite-tracking station on top of the mountain had been bombed during the conflict. I remember standing on a piste with a local guide who was pointing out their internationally-renowned black run. Unlike the rest of the mountain, it was still closed.

Although it had been swept for

stray cluster bombs, he said, they just wanted to make sure before they opened it. Going off-piste wasn’t recommended.

Anyway, Kopaonik had been a favourite with Brits on a budget before the war. With our help, maybe it could be again. The ‘progressives’ in favour of showing a happy face to the world saw tourism as a way of reviving a moribund economy and literally bringing Serbia back in from the cold.

We weren’t just hacks on a jolly.

We had cameras pointed at us, and were interviewed for Serbian TV. Our views mattered.

If our visit was a success, the forces of light would prevail

“

you to r:travel, the magazine for the responsible tourist, and official magazine of the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards. This is the fourth year the awards have taken place and they get bigger and better.

The Awards were founded in 2004 by responsibletravel.com, a handpicked directory of thousands of responsible holidays to over 150 countries and one of the pioneers of responsible tourism. Launched in partnership with with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical magazine, the aim of the awards is to recognise those individuals, companies and organisations in the travel industry that are furthering the scope of responsible tourism.

Responsible… Sounds serious. A bit ‘worthy’ perhaps? Let’s bury that one right now. Responsible tourism is not about being po-faced – who wants to be a part of that? You’ll either feel guilty for having fun or fed up if you’re not. But if you travel for relaxation, fulfilment, discovery, adventure and to learn rather than simply to tick off places and things then responsible travel is for you.

All the winners and highly commendeds of the Responsible Tourism Awards, featured in the pages of this magazine have cracked that equation. What they offer maximises the benefits of tourism to the local community and environment, and minimises any negative impacts. But most importantly, they are all offering truly enjoyable and rewarding experiences. Hopefully, some of that has rubbed off on r:travel, too.

I didn’t have my epiphany in an ecolodge in the Amazon rainforest, or while trekking in the Himalayas, I was visiting a country slouching in the shadows of Europe

”

and the door to Europe would be flung open.

This is, of course, a gross over-simplification of a complex situation but as an introduction to responsible-ish tourism it worked for me. Serbia still has much to do but things are improving. The government is investing in tourism development in many regions, including Palic, Stara Planina, Upper and Down Danube regions, Zlatibor and Zlatar mountains, Kopaonik and Vlasina Lake. This will give a lot to communities in these regions.

Tourism is seen as an impulse for regional development.

And since then, I’ve travelled to many more places around the world and seen how developing tourism in the right way can make a positive difference to people’s lives.

All of which ramble is a roundabout way of introducing

3 | r:travel

Roger Fulton, editor

•

Help the environment?

Help yourselves?

RELAX AS HARD AS YOU LIKE

Whose responsibility is the environment? Yours? Ours? At Neilson we believe it’s everyone’s.

After all, going on holiday affects the local population, wildlife and ecology – some things we’ll all benefit from preserving. We’ve made a start by auditing many Neilson-run hotels and yacht operations for their sustainability, against a checklist created by Travelife (an independent initiative funded by the European Union). In 2005 we were also highly commended in the ‘Best in a Mountain Environment’ at the Responsible Travel Awards at the World Travel Market. And what’s more, all our brochures are available as paper-free downloads from our website. So that’s what we’re doing. You can do your bit by using responsible holiday operators. It’s a respect thing.

Ski in January from £149 per person* Call

0845 070 3460

or visit

www.neilson.co.uk

*See website for details.

SAILING

WINDSURFING

SKI & BOARDING

TENNIS

BIKING

DIVING

KIDS’ CLUBS

WAT E R S K I I N G

Contents |

The Awards 22 24 30 34 40 46 50 54 58 64 70 76 80 84

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

| Overall Winner | Best Destination | Best Personal Contribution | Best Volunteering Organisation | Best in a Marine Environment | Best in a Park or Protected Area | Best Large Hotel | Best Small Hotel | Best in a Mountain Environment | Best for Low Carbon Transport & Technology | Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage

•

| Best for Conservation of Endangered Species | Best for Poverty Reduction | Best Tour Operator

Features

Cover image Portrait of an Egyptian girl Nathan B Dappen, shutterstock.co.uk

8 | How to be a responsible traveller 12 | r:travel news 16 | Three steps to holiday heaven

Managing Director | Graeme Gourlay Editor | Roger Fulton Art Editor | Becca Higgins Advertising | Nick Page, Adrian Roffe, Jim Walker Printed by | Woodford Litho, Witham, Essex

92 | The trip that changed my life 98 | Can you fly guilt-free?

Paper supplied by Sappi Fine Paper Europe which holds both the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Systems) certifications. Sappi Fine Paper is quality certified with ISO 9001, OHSA and environmently certified with EMAS (Eco Management and Audit Scheme) and ISO 14001.

Published by | Circle Publishing CIRCLE PUBLISHING

One Victoria Villas, Richmond, Surrey TW9 2GW. Tel: 020 8332 2709, www.circlepublishing.net. Registration number 3090618. All right reserved

102 | Sightseeing for geeks 104 | Green kit

jacob fields

110 | Why we must boycott Burma 114 | Tribute to Anita Roddick When you have finished with this magazine please recycle it

5 | r:travel

•

)"% &/06()" Thousands of holidays to hundreds of places that haven’t been ravaged by mass tourism.

How to be a

responsible traveller

Can you be a tourist without wrecking the planet or other people’s lives?

Luckily for you, it and them, you can!

8 | r:travel

S

o, you want to be a responsible traveller?

Fed up with flopping and dropping on a beach pockmarked with sun umbrellas and surrounded by spit-roasting fellow Brits loudly demanding egg and chips and PG Tips for breakfast, and fish and chips and ten pints of lager for supper in an expat bar before vomiting it all back up in some Mediterranean backstreet, in front of the horrified locals?

Of course you are. Responsible travel is a new way of travelling for those who’ve had enough of mass tourism. It’s still about enjoying yourself, but doing so while respecting and benefiting local people and the environment along the way. And it goes deeper than that. It’s about challenging everyone engaged in tourism to take responsibility for what they do – whether that’s people in the destinations, the tour operators or travellers themselves – and play their part in building sustainable livelihoods and communities and preserve fragile environments.

Awareness of ethical or responsible tourism is growing. From around one million responsible holidays taken in 2006, industry forecasts predict that figure will top 2.5 million by 2010.

Of course, the first hurdle for any would-be responsible traveller is the big one. Flying. It’s a feature in itself, which is why we’ve devoted three whole pages to the issue, starting on page 98. For now, let’s move on.

Responsible travel is about bringing the visitor closer to local cultures and environments by involving local people in tourism but in a fair way, not one that exploits them. For example, a local guide from the destination will open your eyes to the local culture and way of life far better than an expat guide ever could – they will also earn a valuable income from you. The responsible traveller appreciates

all illstrations: Jennny vallis

How to be a Responsible Traveller |

local people’s relationship with their environments, and that income from tourism can be a powerful incentive for their conservation.

Responsible tourism is about treading lightly and not overwhelming a place, visiting in smaller groups, and meeting some local people, rather than being surrounded by thousands of folk from back home. Less intrusive and more satisfying, this also makes local people and cultures more welcoming, more accessible.

The responsible tourist wants to get more out of their travels, and to give a bit back to the places and people that they encounter. That may simply mean buying local products and using a local guide, or it may mean supporting a project or taking part in a volunteering scheme that helps build sustainable communities.

The buzzword in all this is authenticity – experiences integral to local people’s traditions, cultures and rituals, rather than those specially created or re-packaged for tourism.

The responsible traveller values diversity – of people, cultures and environments. At the same time they understand that some cultural experiences are best kept private, and that their visit would be an intrusion. Respect earns respect.

On an elemental level, responsible travel is also about re-discovering how to experience nature – to feel it, smell it and learn about it rather than just look at it. What better way to nourish the soul? Responsible travellers would rather get out and walk than sit in a coach, and try to leave no physical evidence of their visit but their footprints.

Above all, the responsible traveller wants to cut loose and explore the world, to have an unforgettable experience and bank some great memories. It may be hard always to do the right thing – but experienced responsible travellers are humble and learn from their mistakes. And wherever they go, they make and experience a difference.

•

Doing the right thing Before you book your holiday Plan your route to minimise carbon emissions – travel by train and public transport where possible.

Minimise flying time and stopovers – the worst carbon emissions are emitted during take-off and landing. For the flights that you cannot avoid, offset the carbon emissions.

Ask to see the tour operator’s policy for responsible tourism. All responsibletravel.com members must have one.

Make sure it explains how they minimise environmental impacts and support the local economy.

Quiz your hotel/ accommodation to see if they really are eco! Go to www. responsibletravel.com/checklist for a 10-point checklist

9 | r:travel

While on holiday Buy local produce in preference to imported goods

Hire a local guide – you'll discover more about local culture and lives, and they will earn an income

Before you travel Read up on local cultures and learn a few words of the local language – travelling with respect earns you respect

Remove all excess packaging – waste disposal is difficult in remote places and developing countries

Ask your tour operator for specific tips for responsible travel in your destination

Ask your tour operator/hotel if there are useful gifts that you could pack for your hosts, local people or schools

Do not buy products made from endangered species, hard woods or ancient artefacts

Respect local cultures, traditions and holy places

Use public transport, hire a bike or walk when convenient – it’s a great way to meet local people on their terms

Use water sparingly – it’s very precious in many countries and tourists tend to use far more than local people

Remember that local people have different ways of thinking and concepts of time, this just makes them different not wrong – cultivate the habit of asking questions (rather than the Western habit of knowing the answers)

Ask your tour operator whether there are local conservation or social projects that you could visit on your trip, and if/how you could help support them

When you get back Write to your tour operator or hotel with any comments or feedback about your holiday, and especially include any suggestions on reducing environmental impacts and increasing benefits to local communities.

Finally, if you've promised to send pictures or gifts to local people remember to do so. Many are promised and not all arrive!

80 | r:travel 10

How to be a Responsible Traveller |

•

Rise and rise

of the responsible traveller

O

The story of responsible tourism is inextricably linked with the story of responsibletravel.com.

As it happens, both are doing pretty well

n a trip to Zambia in 2000 Justin Francis spent two nights staying with the people of Kawaza – a traditional Kunda village not far from South Luangwa National Park.

On the second day the village headman, Jackson, asked to see him. Jackson began a very long and seemingly aimless story about friendship involving various creatures of the forest. He told Justin that during his stay he had become a friend of the village, however he finished by saying that this was not enough.

Jackson explained how tourism provided the village with employment, school funds, a clinic, a new well and money for orphans. He asked Justin to go home and tell everyone about Kawaza village and the benefits of tourism.

Soon after, Justin quit his job as head of marketing at The Body Shop and started an MSc in Responsible Tourism with course director Harold Goodwin.

Six months into the course Justin and Harold concluded that change in tourism would be slow until there was a proven demand for more responsible holidays, and that this in turn depended on tourists being easily able to find and buy this type of holiday. responsibletravel.com was launched in April 2001 with backing from a small group of private investors including Anita and Gordon Roddick from The Body Shop. The idea was to create a profitable international business, and to help re-invent travel and tourism – one of the world’s largest industries – for the benefit of travellers, the industry, and local people and conservation.

Initially the site offered just 15 holidays from founding partners Tribes Travel and

Discovery Initiatives. Recognising that no travel agent can possibly know all the holidays as well as the experts who run them, the site was created to enable travellers to contact carefully pre-screened tour operators and hotel managers directly to make a booking.

Travellers can use the site to find more real, authentic and responsible holidays and to make a booking. They can also read operators’ responsible travel policies; review how they meet responsible travel

“

People are a lot more aware of the effects their lifestyle choices have on the environment and local community

Responsible Tourism Awards, in association with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical magazine, to recognise people, places and organisations that seek to benefit local people and be as eco-friendly as possible.

Responsible tourism used to be the domain of a minority, but responsible tourism is a growing trend that has earned its place in public consciousness alongside other established and better known movements – such as organic food and fair trade.

‘People are a lot more aware of the effects their lifestyle choices have on the environment and local communities, and travel is a huge part of that,’ says Justin. ‘This is knowledge that we as a society and as individuals have built up, and will not just be forgotten or ignored.

I believe it is a change that was long overdue, and the only way forward for a responsible tourism industry.

‘In different ways we have worked with tourism companies ranging from small operators and accommodations to larger operators.

‘There are now various initiatives in the US – such as the Responsible Tourism Committee founded recently by The United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) – and the UK, such as the Green Tourism Scheme, The Travel Foundation and of course the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards that we run.

Organisations such as Tourism Concern have been working hard with communities in destination countries to reduce social and environmental problems connected to tourism, and with the outbound tourism industry in the UK to find ways of improving tourism so that local benefits are increased.

And finally, today, 14 November, sees the first-ever World Responsible Tourism Day.’

”

criteria; see how every trip benefits local people and the environment; and read independently published travellers’ feedback which is used to help tour companies improve their practices responsibletravel.com grew steadily with very modest funding and in May 2004 it was offering holidays in 140 countries from more than 200 leading tourism organisations (now up to more than 265).

That same year the company persuaded Thomson Holidays, Thomas Cook and MyTravel to publish policies for responsible tourism and its pressure persuaded the Federation of Tour Operators to commit to publishing policies for sustainable tourism.

August 2004 also saw the launch of the

81 | r:travel 11

r:travel news |

• r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | •

Pure as the driven snow?

Megeve leads the way for France as the country’s first tourist office to be awarded the coveted ISO 14001 Eco Award, joining Aspen, Jackson Hole, Sun Peaks and Austria’s Lech at the top table of green skiing.

Megeve Tourisme has invested in two Toyota Prius hybrid cars which consume less and pollute less than normal cars. A Toyota Prius issues 104g of CO2/km while a normal car issues between 110 and 115g.

Bumping up its green credentials, the tourist office now uses mainly recycled

paper for all its literature and also makes its resort magazine available on USB memory sticks.

It’s the latest in a growing string of initiatives as resorts in Europe and across the Atlantic try to get to grips with the impact of climate change.

This year, Powderhorn in Colorado became America’s 60th ski resort to join the renewable energy club, following the lead of Aspen (winner of the Best Destination in the 2006 Responsible Tourism Awards) in promoting sustainable policies. Aspen officials have repeatedly warned about the impact of

Penguins should

be so lucky

Australia’s famous Phillip Island Little

global warming on the state’s snowpack levels and the longterm viability of the ski industry.

Powderhorn is the first of the smaller Colorado ski resorts to make the jump into renewable energy. In addition, it has adopted a resort-wide recycling plan, which has reduced its landfill impact nearly 40 per cent.

‘America is shifting to a “green culture.” More and more ski areas now realise that environmental responsibility starts with us,’ says Sarah Allen, marketing director for Powderhorn. ‘Our goal is to raise awareness and help educate consumers about the benefits of wind power. By making the green commitment, we hope our customers can ski or ride guilt-free today and many, many, more tomorrows,’ said Allen.

Journalist Patrick Thorne, who runs a website devoted to highlighting the environmental issues facing the ski industry, www.saveoursnow.com calls skiing the ‘miner’s canary’ for global warming. He says: ‘Many ski areas are doing a lot, most could do more, but while

area and welfare of the little penguins has been preserved, and I hope they will find a place in the hearts of the many tourists who visit each year.’

Phillip Island Nature Park is a wildlife haven featuring Koala Conservation Centre, the largest Fur Seal Colony in Australia, wetlands and breathtaking coastlines.

American comedienne Joan Rivers is also an

penguins have a new high-profile supporter – in the

ambassador alongside a number of Australian

shape of local girl turned superstar Kylie Minogue.

celebrities. Kylie joins the programme as it

Melbourne-born Kylie is backing the welfare of the little penguins on Phillip Island after being

celebrates its second anniversary.

The Penguin Parade

named an ambassador of its successful Penguin

costs from around £7

Foundation. As a ‘penguin parent’, Kylie will assist

for adults and £3.50

the foundation in raising awareness of its work to

for children.

generate funds for little penguin research and

For more information

protection at Phillip Island, a 90-minute drive

on Phillip Island visit

from Melbourne.

www.penguins.org.au.

Kylie, a long-time fan of the Phillip Island

For more information

penguins, commented: ‘One of my fondest

on Melbourne and

childhood memories is our family’s trips to Phillip

Victoria visit www.

Island. It was our regular holiday destination and

visitmelbourne.

we always visited the little penguins. I’m thrilled the

com/uk.

© DARENOTE LTD 2001 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, PHOTOGRAPHER: STEVE SHAW

12 | r:travel

climate change is a global problem, ski areas don’t seem to work internationally.’

Author of the Green Resort Guide for the Ski Club of Great Britain, Thorne insists skiers and ski resorts should not take much of the blame for the fact that global warming is destroying delicate mountain ecosystems.

‘This is predominantly due to mankind’s collective activity.’

Thorne’s website lets you find out what more than 200 ski areas are doing to fight climate change and gives each a star rating for its green credentials. So, if you want to be a responsible skier, use saveoursnow.com to find some truly green runs this winter.

The right destination Six years ago, responsibletravel.com created The Responsible Travel Pavilion at Destinations – the UK’s leading consumer travel show – and has exhibited every year since, with up to 20 of its members.

Again, in 2008, the responsibletravel.com team will host The Responsible Travel Pavilion at the Destinations Holiday & Travel Show at Earls Court, London from 31 January to 3 February.

If you are planning a trip to the show, do drop by and say ‘hi’. Come armed with any questions you may have about responsible travel and you’ll also have the chance to chat with other companies operating on responsible travel principles.

Who knows, you might even find that dream holiday!

Check the website for further details and tickets: www.

DestinationsShow.com.

You will be able to download free tickets for the show from www.responsibletravel.com from December.

• r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | •r:travel news

Blow the whistle on irresponsible tourism A new online travel forum has been launched to expose examples of irresponsible tourism.

Professor Harold Goodwin, Professor of Responsible Tourism Management, at the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, Leeds Metropolitan University, created the website, IrresponsibleTourism.com, as a way of giving people a chance to call to account practices in the travel and tourism industry which they think are irresponsible, and to discuss them with others.

He says: ‘Many are now beginning to use – and abuse – the language of responsible tourism while doing nothing or worse, being irresponsible. This forum is about stopping the responsible travel movement from becoming diluted.

‘Its aim is to provide a discussion space where

people can blow the whistle and debate what is and is not responsible.

‘If Responsible Tourism is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit”, it requires that operators, hoteliers, governments, local people and tourists take responsibility, and take action to make tourism more sustainable.

‘People can use this site to criticise, debate and campaign. Exercise your responsibility, don’t just mutter – call people to account.’

The website is officially launched this month, and so far word of mouth has seen around 100 members registering and ongoing debates include gap year schemes and irresponsible volunteering.

Register at www. irresponsibletourism.com

SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • Brits top air travel emissions list Britons have emerged as the nationality with the highest carbon emissions produced by taking regular flights, according to figures published by market research company Global TGI. Emissions amount to an average of 603 kilograms of carbon per adult – almost a third higher than the world’s second worst offenders, from Ireland, whose carbon footprints from flying add up to an average of 434 kilograms per person, per year. Of the 20 nationalities surveyed, citizens of China and India have the lowest carbon footprints resulting from flying.

Bug-power arrives!

A team of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, USA, has created a battery that’s powered by plant-eating bacteria. As part of a science and engineering competition, the team of material scientists and engineers designed a prototype of a microbial fuel cell that runs on waste plant material. As the bacteria feed on the sugars, starches and other organic material, they release electrons, which can be harnessed to produce electricity.

The bug-powered fuel cells have been designed for household use in off-grid locations and less economically developed countries. Eco-lodges take note.

Vultures trump golfers’ eagles

shutterstock.co.uk

A Croatian conservationist who has devoted 25 years of his life to protecting the island habitat of the Eurasian griffon vulture is celebrating a victory over golfers and transcendental meditators.

In London last month to highlight the work of his Eco Centre, Caput InsulaeBeli

(ECCIB) on the unspoilt Adriatic island of Cres, Dr Goran Susic said they had fought off plans for a golf course and a centre for transcendental meditation which would have attracted 30,000 devotees.

‘To build such a centre would have required enormous infrastructure – electricity, roads and so on,’ says Dr Susic.

‘The island is the only nesting place in Croatia for the griffon vulture, the highest-fflying of any bird.

We have 70 pairs here; they mate for life and live for 50 years.’

Dr Susic has been studying griffons since 1981, and opened his Eco Centre on Cres in 1993, creating a sanctuary where injured, exhausted or poisoned griffons as

13 | r:travel

well as young birds which fall into the sea during their first fflights, can recover before being released back into the wild.

ECCIB runs an eco-tourism programme which, as well as supporting the vulture conservation, also protects the island’s biodiversity and its cultural and historical heritage.

Around 350 volunteers visit the island each year to help monitor the vulture population, and to carry out nature conservation work.

‘Our intention is to show that real eco-tourism is possible,’ says Dr Susic. ‘It’s already too late in some parts of Croatia, but not for Cres. Our island decided that its tourism would be based on a sustainable approach’ www.supovi.hr

r:travel news |

• r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | • r:travel news | •

Growing more responsible by the day

The largest freshwater protected area in the world is being set up off the northern shores of Lake Superior, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced.

The national marine conservation area will encompass more than 10,000 sq km (3,900 sq miles) of Lake Superior, the biggest of the Great Lakes, including lake bed, islands and north shorelands.

The area – about the size of Lebanon – stretches to the east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and down to the Canada-US border, north of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The area seeks to balance environmental protection with preserving the livelihood of local residents who work in marine industries such as commercial and sport fishing and shipping.

SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • SHORT BREAKS • Count your carbon Google has launched the UK Carbon Footprint Project, allowing you to calculate your personal carbon footprint, choose carbonreducing steps from a personalised action plan and compare your actions to those of others around the UK by putting yourself on the Google UK Carbon Footprint Map. The Google Carbon Calculator, built in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust and RSA, draws on Defra’s ‘Act on CO2’ calculator for its data, calculations and approved methodologies.

Go to www.google.co.uk/carbonfootprint

Green sails in the sunset An ecologically strategic piece of one of the world’s most threatened habitats – the Atlantic Forest of Brazil – will be reforested and protected as part of an innovative partnership between the Rainforest Alliance and organisers of the transatlantic yacht race the Transat Jacques Vabre.

The international conservation organisation was approached

by Jacques Vabre – the coffee brand behind the race which started from Le Havre in France on 4 November – to create a programme that would enable the greenhouse gas emissions from the event to be offset through a reforestation project in Brazil, where the race ends later this month. An estimated 2,700 tons of carbon dioxide will be offset by thousands of native trees being planted in deforested areas within the Caraiva River Basin, home to about 7,000 people who depend on its natural resources, and to many endangered plant and animal species.

80 | r:travel 14

past year and the available choices have grown by more than 200 per cent. One of the latest UK members is Deepdale Backpackers and Camping, an eco-farm on the north Norfolk coast with a range of accommodation from campsite to private en-suite rooms.

Companies running volunteering trips continue to increase their portfolio and the latest addition, Travellers Worldwide joined the site in October this year, offering teaching trips and volunteer opportunities throughout the world. In the luxury category, The Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa and The Great Ocean Ecolodge in Australia are just two of the exclusive but responsible places to stay that are new to the site this year. There have been plenty of new adventure tours added, too – Ace the Himalaya, for example, offers off-thebeaten-track trips in Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal while generating a fairer income for the local community.

Justin Francis, managing director and co-founder of responsibletravel.com comments: ‘It never fails to amaze us just what a diverse range of businesses are now adopting responsible tourism policies and implementing changes in their businesses so as to meet our criteria.’

shutterstock.co.uk

Superior protection

Fifty new tour operators and 150 great places to stay have signed up to market holidays through responsibletravel.com, over the past six months, taking the total to more than 265 tour operators and more than 540 places to stay in more than 150 countries.

As more tourism companies begin to place a greater emphasis on sustainable development, the website’s rigorous screening process for new members continues to ensure that only those with the highest standards on responsible tourism are included.

The growing trend in responsible tourism has led to a number of more mainstream tour operators and accommodations joining as members. Radisson, for example, now has two properties in Malta on the site. The innovation behind the holidays is impressive, too, Paradise Bay Resort and Spa in Grenada for example, is leading the way in Caribbean sustainable development with the installation of a utility grade windmill. responsibletravel.com has put an emphasis on expanding UK accommodations over the

What have you got to look forward to this Winter?

Rain?...

...or reindeer!

Activities Abroad - Winter and Summer Activity & Adventure Holidays

01670 785 011 www.activitiesabroad.com

Steps to holiday heaven Most travel agents’ first question to would-be tourists is where do you want to go? However, to really get the most from your holiday, there are a few other things you need to ask yourself before that poser.

Here are r:travel’s three steps to holiday heaven

Y

ou’re thinking of taking some time out for a holiday or to travel, but where do you start? With so much exposure to adverts, recommendations from friends and a forest of brochures available, it can be a daunting prospect to choose a destination, let alone contemplate what to do while you are there. Maybe that’s why so many people settle for an all-inclusive package that takes away the hassle of planning and organising your trip.

But planning a holiday can, and should be a fun part of the holiday. With a few tips, everyone should be able to find their ideal trip – whether that’s lazing on a beach, swimming with dolphins or volunteering at an orphanage.

Here are three questions to ask yourself before you decide.

Choosing exactly what to do can be difficult. We can pretty much travel anywhere in the world, and do everything from chilling on a beach, to sky jumping over the North Pole. If it’s sheer relaxation you’re after, think about how you relax; do you like doing nothing, enjoy yoga, read a book or do you like to get your teeth into something to take your mind off everything? Sometimes all we need is to kick back and enjoy sea, sand and

sunshine – although there is usually the option of some cultural exploration or activities if the relaxation gets too much!

Maybe you feel like escaping. You can experience the humbling forces of nature on a wilderness holiday. Anything from retreating to an Alaskan lodge with only bears as your neighbours, to spending time with nomadic people on the Mongolian steppe. Perhaps you’ve always dreamt about climbing Everest or wondered what it’s like to live with an African tribe? Why not use your well-earned holiday to fulfil one of those dreams… Whether it’s thrill-seeking or self-discovery, there are many specialist operators who can take you to these remote corners of the planet.

If you’ve spent every day behind a desk, an active holiday may be what

16 | r:travel

you’re looking for. Walking holidays range from introductory walking to high altitude trekking, depending on your fitness. Then there are cycling and mountain biking trips (also classified according to your experience and fitness) or various winter holidays.

What about learning something new?

You can now learn almost any new skill in the stimulating environment of a new country and different culture – from languages to cooking, from game ranger skills to journalism, from sailing to scuba diving.

Maybe you want to make a difference?

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea to be building dams or getting up at 5am to survey beaches during their holiday.

However, volunteering can be a most rewarding and life-changing form of travel.

You’ll gain so much when volunteering, while also giving something back to the local community or the environment.

Finding out what you want to get out of your holiday is the first important step in planning a holiday and as you can see there are many different things that people can look for in a holiday. Beware though; don’t try and tick too may boxes but concentrate on one thing at a time.

The last thing you want is to have to recover from your holiday after trying to cram too much in!

Choosing the right holiday |

It is important to think about who you are traveling with (if anyone), and about their needs and aspirations. Travel can be a great way to meet new people, and how better than on a small group adventure holiday! This can take you to some of the most breathtaking and inspiring natural and cultural landscapes in the world. Perfect for anyone who

enjoys meeting like-minded people and making new friends – and great value!

Perhaps you’re going on a journey of selfdiscovery that you would rather undertake on your own, or with a partner, or maybe you would like to bring your young grandchildren along. There are many aspects to a great holiday and these requirements are very individual. Try to ensure that the experience is going to be enjoyable for all of you by thinking about what type of travel your family/friends enjoy, and discuss with them how to meet both your objectives.

Think about the best holiday you have ever had. What was it that made it so special? Perhaps it was your travel companions, something you experienced

17 | r:travel

•

or learnt, spontaneity, tranquillity or discovering different ways of life. Try to find out what the highlights were and what makes you happy when on holiday.

Remember that you are not the same as you were, but what types of experience could you repeat and how?

Of course there are always restrictions such as budget, travelling with children or flying times which may dictate which country or part of the world you travel to.

However, having gone through these three steps, you should now be ready to search for ideas for your holiday with focus – without being seduced or distracted.

•

•| The Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards

A Source of Inspiration

S

ince 2001, responsibletravel. com has become a great source of inspiration for tourists looking for wonderful and authentic holidays that bring increased economic benefits to local people and minimise any negative environmental impacts.

From the early days when I ran the business out of my front room in Brighton marketing just 15 holidays, we now have a team of 17 staff and over 2,700 handpicked holidays from more than 265 tour operators and over 540 places to stay in more than 150 countries.

As well as marketing holidays through responsibletravel.com, we founded the Responsible Tourism Awards in 2004 to surprise and inspire tourists and the tourism industry by showing just what it is possible to achieve through responsible tourism; and to reward those travel organisations, individuals and destinations who are leading the way in putting its principles into practice.

We are now in the fourth year of our

Responsible Tourism Awards and it has been a year of great change in which we have not only welcomed on board Virgin Holidays as our new headline sponsor, but also created for the first time this beautiful publication allowing us to celebrate the achievements of our winners to the full.

Since the launch of the Awards in 2004 we have seen the profile of responsible tourism move from niche to mainstream as the need to reduce poverty and conserve our environmental and cultural heritage becomes ever more pressing.

We all recognise that tourism brings both positive and negative impacts to local people and the planet. Responsible tourism is about holidays (in the UK and overseas) that strive to improve the benefits of tourism to local people while minimising negative environmental and cultural impacts in destinations. When we choose to fly to our destination it is more important than ever that our holidays do this.

With over 1,700 nominations received from members of the public this year, we are proud that our Responsible Tourism Awards have become the largest and most respected awards of their kind. We hope you will join with us in congratulating and drawing inspiration from the 2007 winners celebrated in these pages.

To find out more about Responsible Tourism Award winners past and present and to view our Responsible Tourism Awards film featuring the awards ceremony and interviews with the winners, visit www.responsibletourismawards.com.

Finally, we would like to say a very big thank you to our partners – The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical magazine – our headline sponsor, Virgin Holidays, all our category sponsors, and our expert judging panel. Without their support the Responsible Tourism Awards would not be the success they are today.

JUSTIN FRANCIS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RESPONSIBLETRAVEL.COM

18 | r:travel

PERIENCE e r u t n e v d a e h t l e Fe

e of your tim oe m o s g pendin cal pe level by s t elephants and lo w e n d n a mer rotec n a br project. P or give hope to for venture o n d a io t t a x v e r n e r s ngle e you or con inishing ju back.

Experienc mmunity im o d c r a e v n e o ing little orneo’s volunteer and give a reserve B e p r , u t ia n e ib v m d ures: ple in Na ing broch Have an a w . o a ll y n o f e K e in y of th poachers re and an u h c o r b r ntee NEW Volu r u o s r e d r O Adventure Family reaks er Short B Astronomy Volunte & Eclipse ventures Cycle Ad School Beyond urs To History ide Worldw

01 9 0 9 9 4 4 084 CO.UK .

EXPLORE

Ref. REPSTG

•| Headline Sponsor – Virgin Holidays

Virgin Holidays This year Virgin Holidays is the headline sponsor of the 2007 Responsible Tourism Awards. These awards give companies and individuals valuable recognition for their efforts to make the travel industry greener, cleaner and more responsible. Started in 2004 by responsibletravel.com, the awards are managed in partnership with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical – the magazine of The Royal Geographical Society

Amanda Wills Managing Director of Virgin Holidays

dividends that Virgin Group receives from Virgin Holidays, Atlantic and Trains (estimated to be $3bn over the next 10 years) will be ploughed into research and investment to develop sustainable sources of energy.

In addition to this groundbreaking initiative, Richard has also offered $25m to anyone who can find an effective solution to climate change! But, if that tinkering you’ve been doing in your shed hasn’t quite come up with the answer yet, at least you know that in choosing Virgin Holidays for your getaway you are helping us to try to make a real difference.

We continually strive to make our business more sustainable. This includes auditing and improving our supply chains for sustainability performance, working with responsible tourism charities such as The Travel Foundation www. thetravelfoundation.org.uk and Tourism Concern www.tourismconcern.org.uk, who help care for the places we all love to visit, and ensuring that our head office operations are as green as possible.

utiful ibly bea ts. It d re c in ir paren rited an as inhe rom the ir children f h y n e io h t t era d the ts and tion Our gen dren an r paren il u h o c genera r m e u h o ro t f r e e d rl h b t wo he not ment hands w orld. We must environ e h t g is in our w in e mag he sam rsibly da e inherit t v re ir r ible fo 06) respons (Sept 20

“

nson

ard Bra

Sir Rich

20 | r:travel

”

Shutterstock.co.uk

W

e are delighted to be able to act as headline sponsor of the 2007 Responsible Tourism Awards. Virgin has always been about driving change through successful entrepreneurship, and Virgin Holidays is no different.

We are passionate about responsible tourism and proud to be associated with awards that provide recognition to those individuals and businesses whose success in pioneering social and environmental responsibility acts as inspiration to others. The importance of sustainability in tourism has never been greater.

We support sustainable tourism and do our best to ensure that your children and their children are able to enjoy a holiday as beautiful as the ones we offer you today. We recognise that demonstrating responsible business practices towards the environment and the communities within which we operate is key to our achievement of this long term goal.

To prove we aren’t all talk, ALL profits and

Meet the Sponsors |

Sponsors

best personal contribution

Tourism Awards

tourism commission

of the Responsible

best in a mountain environment An organisation related to a mountain environment, such as an eco-friendly ski resort or a trip that contributes to the welfare of mountain porters. sponsored by Blacks

•

A person who has made an outstanding contribution to responsible tourism. sponsored by Canadian

best small hotel

best large hotel

A hotel, lodge or other accommodation of less than 50 rooms that is run with the environment and needs of local people in mind.

A hotel, lodge or other accommodation of more than 50 rooms that is run with the environment and needs of local people in mind.

sponsored by TOURISM QUEENSLAND

sponsored by HYATT hotels and resorts

best in a park or protected area An organisation related to a park or protected area, such as a wildlife safari or a rainforest trip that supports conservation and maintains the rights of indigenous people. sponsored by conservation international

best for low carbon transport & technology

best for conservation of cultural heritage

An organisation or initiative that is developing or promoting low carbon transport or technology.

A tourism organisation or initiative working to protect and promote cultural heritage.

sponsored by virgin trains

best in a Marine environment

Sponsored by jamaica tourist board

best tour operator A tour operator that acts responsibly towards the environment and local people.

best for conservation of endangered species A group or initiative working for the conservation of endangered species.

best for poverty reduction An organisation that acts to reduce poverty among communities. sponsored by starwood hotels & resorts

Sponsored by sri lanka tourism

best volunteering organisation

best destination

An organisation offering volunteering opportunities, such as the chance to work on conservation or social projects.

A resort, village or an entire country that manages tourism well for the long-term benefit of tourists, conservation and local people.

sponsored by tourism

sponsored by lonely

sponsored by G.A.P

tasmania

planet

adventures

An organisation related to a beach or other marine environment, such as turtle conservation or a marine eco-tourism trip.

sponsored by the

adventure company

21 | r:travel

winner The New Forest

What the judges said...

‘The judges were unanimous in their praise for The New Forest, a destination which has worked over the last 15 years with visitors, the industry, the community – including commoners and small holders – to look after the environment (using the VICE model: Visitor, Industry, Community, Environment) and benefit all interests as well as providing a model for other destinations to follow. This includes the exciting contribution of the New Forest Breakfast to sustainable development, only possible because there are now sufficient local suppliers to meet the demand for local produce from locals and visitors.’

22 | r:travel

Overall Winner |

•

How the New Forest learned to love the grockle Tropical rainforests eat your heart out. A woodland closer to home is setting the pace on responsible tourism

S

tanding in Lyndhurst on a summer weekend, as a never-ending ribbon of cars stretches back three miles to the Cadnam turn-off of the M27, you can understand why the New Forest has often had a hate-hate relationship with visitors.

It’s ironic then that the New Forest owes its very identity and existence to an outsider, a ‘grockle’.

Nearly 1,000 years ago, after his successful invasion of England, William the Conqueror set up his court in Winchester and created a nova foresta, a new royal hunting ground on about 150 square miles of heath, wetland, grassy plain and wild wood. Forest laws were set up to protect the deer and their habitat, while indigenous peasants unable to enclose their land were given common rights to graze domestic animals throughout the forest.

Some 6,000 ponies, donkeys and cattle still roam freely as they have done for centuries, the ancient traditions kept alive by the 400 or so commoners who still exercise their right to graze their livestock, cut turf, take firewood and let their pigs out in the autumn when they eat the acorns that are poisonous to the ponies.

It’s a delicate ecological balance – and when tourism really took off in the 1960s and 70s, those living in the New Forest resented the growing annual influx of tourists who roamed as freely on four wheels as the animals did on four legs. Until 1970, there were no restrictions on cars.

Visitors could go off road and drive all over

23 | r:travel

winner The New Forest, UK

Swan Green, Lyndhurst the forest, pitch their tents and light their fires wherever they wanted.

Some attempts at managing this invasion were introduced during the 1970s – ditches and barriers were constructed by the Forestry Commission to corral the cars into a new network of 150 car parks all over the forest. Inevitably, many visitors drove from car park to car park, ate their sandwiches and drained their thermos flasks before going back home.

Everyone hated the grockles. Far from being an affectionate nickname, it became a term of open abuse.

People wrote to local newspaper editors complaining that tourism was destroying the forest and everything about it that was held dear. Tourism was the football that was kicked into the game whenever anything was wrong. It was blamed for pratically everything.

And yet the one thing that united the local community, businesses, industry and the tourists was a love of the forest.

That shared love of the forest environment has been at the heart of the strategy introduced by tourism manager

Tony Climpson when he joined the New Forest District Council 20 years ago.

With 13.5million visitor days to the forest, Climpson’s message to the local community and businesses was blunt: ‘You can’t get away from tourism. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, your life will be, to a greater or lesser extent, shaped by tourism. It’s just a fact.

‘But if we were going to turn the story around we needed to create tourism which benefited everybody rather than screwed everything up.’

Over the past 20 years Climpson has done just that, devising an operating model called VICE – Visitor, Industry, Community and Environment – which has sought to involve all parties in creating a responsible form of tourism that has helped build a sustainable community fully engaged with the visitor, rather than fighting him at every turn.

‘Our first consultation document was called Living with the Enemy? Then there was Making New Friends. It’s a measure of how far we’ve come that our latest plan is called Our Future Together.’

24 | r:travel

The VICE model came about as a practical tool for pointing out to all the groups that to maintain the forest they needed to take care of each other.

‘Conservation only comes when you’ve got an economy to fund it.’

The New Forest District Council was in a unique position to play honest broker in this

Beaulieu

Best Destination | vision, to help build relationships and set up networks among local businesses to share information and experience.

Primarily, what Climpson has been working for is a local solution. ‘We’re trying to declare local UDI here. We’re trying to create our own food networks, our own economy, based on local ownership. In the forest we have an immensely strong brand and a strong fabric which people can recognise as valuable and which shouldn’t be destroyed. That in turn entices a lot of people here so businesses can set themselves up and live from that. We have very few nationally-owned businesses.

They’re all local, so they reinvest into the local economy and employ local people.

‘It’s no different really to the way responsible tourism tries to help build sustainable local communities in the developing world.

‘With the exception of, maybe, one or two places like Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst or Lymington, many of the pubs and shops in virtually every other village would have closed without visitors coming in and spending money. Local expenditure alone would not keep them going, but the additional revenue, sometimes up to 40 or 50 per cent is enough to keep that amenity open.’

Among the initiatives begun over the past 20 years, of which many are only just now beginning to bear fruit, are visitor information services, car-free transport, a network of local produce, visitor stewardship (which encourages visitors to respect and maintain the forest environment, through practical action and a gift aid scheme), sustainable business development, and the involvement of the local communities.

Facts…

New Forest Area: 290 square miles Location: southern England between Southampton and Bournemouth Population: 179,690 Governance: The New Forest National Park (est. 1994) is managed by the New Forest National Park Authority.

Tourism development and promotion is managed by New Forest District Council

www.thenewforest.co.uk

A ‘green’ tourism initiative, the Green Leaf Tourism Scheme – which now has 80 members – further helps to link businesses by sharing information about local produce, biodiversity, planning issues, transport, research and marketing skills. All these members are committed to reducing their carbon impact, and many have seen their fuel and energy consumption cut by as much as half.

In June Green Leaf providers had their first Green Tourism Business Scheme assessment and achieved three gold and five silver awards. Andrea Nicolas, managing director of the GTBS says: ‘When an area first joins a scheme we expect most businesses to get a bronze award. Because New Forest businesses had already worked their way through the Green Leaf scheme they were all well past entry level.’ Eleven more accommodation providers are waiting to be GTBS accredited.

Undoubtedly, the most significant achievement over the past few years has been the development of New Forest Marque products and its use by local tourism businesses. This also goes to the heart of the commoning system which gives the forest its unique character.

Until very recently commoners could only sell to wholesalers at poor prices meaning many could not afford to carry on their way of life. Using local tourism to stimulate an increased market value of their produce by direct selling to hoteliers, b&bs, restaurants, pubs and shops has given the commoners and small local producers a sustainable business future.

Working with the New Forest Tourism Association – an independent network of tourism-led businesses which it set up in 1988 - the district council built up this local supply chain by creating the New Forest Breakfast and the New Forest Marque.

In 2004, no New Forest breakfasts were sold; in 2007, it’s estimated that more than 75,000 will be served.

The Marque – which puts quality and animal welfare at the top of the agenda – now boasts 111 accredited members, of whom 20 are new or returning producers.

More than 40 NFTA members are selling marque produce and it is also sold in major retailers such as Harrods, and abroad, in America, France and Ireland.

A pivotal moment in reaching this point was during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, when restrictions in animal movements meant cattle had to be penned in the commoners’ smallholdings. The hoteliers

25 | r:travel

•

What the judges said...

‘The New Forest has shown how the economic, social and environmental objectives of Responsible Tourism can be achieved with the full participation of all the stakeholders at the destination level. The New Forest has set an example which others are seeking to emulate and surpass.

The hotelier Carey’s Manor Hotel and Spa, Brockenhurst This four-star, 80-bedroom hotel, owned by the Leach family, has a gold GTBS award and offers a ten per cent discount to guests arriving car-free. It’s also been piloting the New Forest Trust’s Visitor Gift Scheme which encourages visitors to donate £1 to the Trust when they leave. This cash contributes directly to conservation projects. James Hiley-Jones, the general manager says: ‘The gift aid scheme has been well-received and we’re hoping other hoteliers will participate.

‘The car-free idea has resulted in seven per cent more guests coming by train: we make around eight journeys each day to pick up guests.’

Other green initiatives include: New Forest water in returnable bottles sing mostly New Forest Marque produce U – it has served 50,000 New Forest breakfasts Green electricity generated by a wind farm Recycling, including giving old blankets and leftover toiletries to a homeless hostel Using bird and bat boxes built by staff

and tourism managers resisted commercial pressures to open up the forest and the commoners recognised that they were taking a financial hit as a result and began to see them as colleagues. The mistrust between commoners and tourism has greatly diminished as a result – certainly among the commoners’ leaders.

‘The advantage tourism can bring,’ says Climpson, ‘is that commoners have started doing b&b or farm tours as well as local produce. We are growing a way of life and providing a living for smallholders from the visitor experience.’

‘This is desperately important,’ he adds.

‘After all, what’s the alternative for the forest if we don’t have commoning? It might not be the kind of slash and burn degradation we see in some developing countries, rather it would be building and development. Unless the forest has intrinsic value it’ll be gentrified and built upon. It’ll become Basingstoke with trees.

‘We are fighting that. The whole reason the forest has National Park status is to protect it from being encroached upon

by Totton on one side and Christchurch on the other.’

One of the biggest challenges facing all those involved with tourism is the car.

Presently, 96 per cent of visitors arrive in the New Forest by car. Efforts to encourage more to come by rail and use bikes have been hampered by the problems of getting sufficient bike capacity on trains to make a real difference.

‘However hard you try to persuade them, the vast majority of people will continue to arrive by car,’ says Climpson.

‘What we are doing is not to deal with what is a national, even an international issue. We’ve decided to concentrate on getting visitors out of their cars once they’re here.’

Visitors are encouraged to hire bikes or use the New Forest Tour Bus, a hop-on, hop-off open-top bus service which links to 192 miles of cycle tracks. The National Park is co-funding a project to bring 10 electric cars into the forest for hire by visitors, while in 2007, a car-free scheme offering incentives such as accommodation discounts to visitors who leave their cars at home has been trialled by 15 hoteliers and b&b operators who provide a free shuttle service to railway and bus stations.

‘As a result of these initiatives, the amount of people who do not drive in the

forest per day is in the hundreds, per week in the thousands, per month in the tens of thousands and per year in the hundreds of thousands,’ says Climpson.

‘We‘re trying to stop the forest becoming a giant country park, where people just drive around, eat their sandwiches and drink their coffee. That’s what it used to be.

But the forest is full of bikes now, and for the first time the New Forest Ordnance Survey Map is outselling the Lake District ones.

For the future, Climpson and his tourism team want to reach out to even more businesses within the forest community and aim to double the number participating in the Green Leaf Tourism Scheme by June 2008. They plan to launch a community tourism version of the GLTS by April 2008, and hope to improve the Visitor Stewardship programme.

‘It’s about all of us realising that we’ve all got a bit of a jigsaw and that if we all put our pieces down together we’ll make the right picture. As a destination, 20 years ago we were perceived as a wet night on a campsite. Not any more. We’re trying to get people to fall in love with the forest, to come back time and time again and in doing so add value rather than take it. If you do that you’ve got an organic process which is good for the people and good for the environment.’

The B&B operator Cottage Lodge, Brockenhurst The lodge was built in 1650 from timber salvaged from an old ship built at nearby Bucklers Hard.

Christina Simons and David Mascord are the only B&B owners to hold a Green Tourism Business Scheme gold award and have dished up 15,000 New Forest Breakfasts over the past two years. As well, Cottage Lodge offers free tea and cakes as well as off-season discounts to guests joining the car-free schemes and is up to around 40 per cent participation rate.

Christina, chairman of the New Forest Tourism Association’s hotels group, has enthusiastically embraced energy conservation at the couple’s 12-room five-star Cottage Lodge- resulting in a 50 per cent reduction in energy consumption, and is planning a trial of microfibre cleaning cloths instead of chemicals. She also hopes to convert a garage into a carbon-neutral showroom using solar and other renewable energy, and harvesting rainwater to flush toilets.

The commoner Rick Manley is a practising commoner and grazes his cattle on forest land ‘I wouldn’t say the New Forest Breakfast is saving commoning on its own. The majority of commoners have always been part-time and still are. And 80-90 per cent keep less than ten animals. But commoners are able to utilise the local producers’ markets, which is beneficial.

‘What I am very heartened by is the change of attitude within the tourism industry in realising how important commoning is to the forest. It’s the bedrock. And some of the initiatives such as the stewardship scheme, and the Visitor Gift Aid scheme being piloted

by Carey’s Manor have the potential to bring in a lot of money to reinvest into the infrastructure of the forest – building animal pounds in the forest, for example, which will be of positive benefit to the commoning community.

‘Also the education of visitors that’s going on through the Green Leaf Scheme is really helping to get people to act responsibly.

‘Commoners have always been a fiercely independent people, but now we’re talking to those in the tourism business and are aware of one another’s needs. That’s the big line we’ve crossed here.’

26 | r:travel

Best Destination | highly

commended

•

Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

Bay watch

Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka’s east coast has long been a fabled surfers’ paradise. But it hasn’t always been a paradise for many of the local community.

What direct economic benefits tourism brought were mostly limited to hotels, restaurants and transport providers. In what is one of the most neglected and disadvantaged regions of the country, the poorest sectors of the community were left out of the loop.

Now, however, that is changing. The Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP) is bringing together different sectors – and the three ethnic groups, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims – to work together to establish a community-based approach to tourism.

In an area which has also been troubled by ethnic conflict, tourism is also helping to bring peace.

After the 2004 tsunami, the government wanted to take over land at Arugam Bay and build luxury hotels.

But the community united against the proposals. Now different communities outside the main tourism sector, such as fishermen, rural women and farmers also benefit. Revenue is shared by local participants, and income is used to protect the mangrove ecosystems

27 | r:travel

and archaeological sites, and to boost local arts and crafts.

A plant nursery has been set up to restore areas that were severely affected by the tsunami. Schoolchildren attend conservation awareness programmes.

Organic farming was once neglected; now rural workers receive money from visitors as well as from the produce they supply to hotels. Thirteen young men have trained as eco-guides, and now operate their own agency. And fishermen can earn 10 dollars a day from fishing and lagoon tours – using rowing boats instead of motorboats.

Community Based Tourism Centres have been set up to provide information, special offers and a booking service for tourist attractions, as well as the chance to buy handicrafts. And a free booklet tells visitors about Sri Lankan lifestyles and culture to ensure a higher level of sensitivity during their stay.

‘We want to create a different model for Sri Lanka tourism,’ says RTP’s founder and director Charmarie Maelge. ’The success of that will really be when our experiences are used for future development.’

Arugam Bay is still a surfers’ paradise; now things are looking up for their hosts, too. www.responsibletourismsrilanka.org

•| Best Destination highly

commended

Costa Rica

Costa Bravo!

Sleep to the sound of tree frogs, wake to the call of Howler monkeys, trek through lush rainforest, glimpse cascading waterfalls, watch the jaw-dropping sight of molten lava ooze from volcanoes or chill out along Costa Rica’s 762-mile coastline.

With so much to offer the adventurous traveller, the Costa Rica Tourist Board (ICT) has been working to conserve this Central American paradise. A Peace with Nature plan has been launched to raise awareness of global warming and the need for all sectors to reduce their carbon footprint. The board has also established a Certificate of Sustainable Tourism (CST) – a grading system awarded to businesses for their level of commitment to the sustainable development of local communities and the surrounding environment, driving competitiveness within the tourism industry to encourage ethical and eco-friendly initiatives.

Situated in Guanacaste along the Pacific coast, the town of Nandayure is an example of radical

change. Over the past ten years the Punta Islita Hotel has transformed the lives of local inhabitants, taking them out of poverty, unemployment, alcoholism and other social problems. The town has bought in to the idea of sustainable tourism, and local women, in particular, have organised themselves to produce crafts and other products that are sold to tourists.

The Hotel Forest Verde Lodge in Sarapiqui has founded the Center of Conservation and Learning where young and old can get involved and learn about new conservation techniques, viable native species for reforestation and other methods of enhancing the environment.

Other lodges have embraced responsible tourism with recycling and reutilisation schemes, serving home-grown locally-sourced food, decorating rooms with murals, sculptures and paintings by local artisans and through using solar-heating and alternatives to air-conditioning. www.visitcostarica.com

sponsored by: G.A.P. Adventures G.A.P Adventures is a world leader in adventure travel. We offer unique small group adventures, safaris and expeditions on all seven continents with a focus on culture, nature and active travel. Our unique and varied styles of award-winning trips are ideal for people with a sense of adventure – who want to travel off the beaten path, immerse themselves in the local culture and environment, and experience the

28 | r:travel

real world in a sustainable manner.

We are also the proud owner of the polar expedition ship the M/S Explorer. Through our commitment to responsible tourism, we have developed Planeterra The G.A.P Adventures Foundation as a way for us and our travellers to give back to the communities we visit on our trips.

/°ÊänÇäÊÓ{£Êxn£È

winner Anthony Climpson, New Forest Tourism

‘My job is the best in the world’

T

ony Climpson is not like a local government officer. He’s more like the man from Del Monte who breezes in and says yes.

To put it simply, Climpson makes things happen. For the past 21 years he has been tourism destination manager for New Forest District Council and has been the person responsible for turning around the story of a community at loggerheads with itself and united only in its loathing of the tourist.

In that time he has transformed the thinking of the key groups – the visitor, the tourism industry and the community – getting them to work together for the benefit of each other and the forest environment, on which they all depend.

But while he’s a crusader for his own brand of responsible tourism, he’s not a green evangelist and wouldn’t be seen

dead sporting an eco-halo. His VICE model for sustainability was created not from an environmental textbook, but as a way of finding practical solutions to the problems.

Sitting in his low-ceilinged office under the eaves of the council offices in Lyndhurst, Climpson is ebulliently enthusiastic about his job and the forest.

But he doesn’t mince his words when it comes to explaining his philosophy.

‘I don’t like the word ‘green’. It doesn’t express the depth and breadth of what’s required for a really sustainable solution.

Responsible is better, but it’s a rather boring word, a bit worthy, and we’re in the fun business, the leisure business. Green has been hijacked as well – it’s become a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

‘We’ve done what we’ve done from a self-interested perspective, but for all the right reasons. We say to the visitor: “Be respectful to the community and the environment, take advantage of the industry which is there to serve you, but you need to engage with them.”

‘In a nutshell, that’s where we’ve come from. Not from reading in a book somewhere that it was really good to be green or responsible. It was out of the real

30 | r:travel

situation we found ourselves in that we came up with this idea of creating a big team. Ultimately, I believe that responsible tourism is about people and working together. You can have the greenest ideas in the world, but unless you have people working with you it won’t happen.’

The Visitor Stewardship Scheme, for example, is about getting everyone to tell the same story, because if someone understands the story about a place, then two things will happen – first, they’ll have a greater respect for that place and second they’ll get more enjoyment out of it. ‘They’ll understand why there are no fences; why there are bloody ponies wandering all over the place,’ says Climpson.

‘Bad tourism is about visitors getting ripped off, too much self-interest, business taking and not giving, global branding permeating everything and screwing things up. But tourism can be a force for good if you do it properly.’

Climpson says he is less motivated by the green goal than by his enjoyment of the teamwork involved in getting there.

‘I like being in a team, a group, a club, and having lots of us doing it together.

The fact that saving the planet is a team

Best Personal Contribution |

What the judges said...

ssion sponsored by:

‘For 20 years, long before ‘green’ became fashionable, Anthony Climpson was developing an integrated approach to managing tourism in the landscape, engaging local communities, local government and tourism businesses in conserving the New Forest’

game is the motivating feature,’ he says, adding, with a touch of the David Brents, ‘Obviously it would be a good idea to keep the planet – that’s the sensible bit.

But the doing part has to be the interesting bit. If we get people doing it, the rest will follow. I find worthiness dangerous. I come across worthy people all the time, but no-one is going to listen to them. I try to make sure I avoid that, because this is about real people, real teamwork.’

In his council role, Climpson has played the honest broker in bringing the VICE squad together, and is certainly well-respected. He won the OBE for his dogged pursuit of his goal, and Christina Simons, owner of the Cottage Lodge B&B in Brockenhurst, says of him: ‘He opens doors for everyone. It’s fabulous to have someone as part of the Forest who so loves it, is so enthusiastic, keen and supportive.’

Climpson, now 55, has taken an unconventional route to the top of his particular tree. Born in the Cotswolds and brought up on a farm, he went to a boarding school on the edge of Salisbury where he excelled at sports – especially cricket, which he still plays for a Forest team – and loved geography and history.

•

Canadian Tourism Commission If we all believe in ‘some day’, we know we have to protect our earth today. Canada is about it’s people, but Canada is also about magnificent mountains, the Arctic tundra, alpine rivers and lakes, ocean shoreline and pristine rainforest, and all wildlife within.

We at the Canadian Tourism Commission are proud to promote a country with a long history of preservation. For years our tourism industry has been leading the charge toward a Green World – with eco-lodges, leave-no-footprint tours, sustainably grown food, low-emissions travel options and low-impact wildlife encounters.

We are honoured to sponsor the Best Personal Contribution award. This award recognises those who highlight environmental awareness and sustainable practices across the world, and we applaud all these pioneers of Green Travel. Thank you for your important work!

A keen musician, he kicked around in the Sixties as a drummer in various local bands before getting ‘a proper job’ as a bus conductor – ‘helping little old ladies on and off the bus – it was great. I loved it’. He dabbled with recycling polythene, way before it was fashionable or, more to the point, financially viable. It was while working on a South Coast listings magazine that he saw an ad for a project manager for Dorset Tourism and found his niche.

‘If you had told me 30 years ago that I’d have been a local government officer, I’d have laughed. Actually, I don’t even think I’m one now.’

Although Climpson lives in Bournemouth with his wife Bridgette and 14-year-old daughter Kessiah, he is passionate about the forest. ‘This is a wonderful place, and over the past 21 years we’ve got to the point where we’re making reasonable headway in rewriting the story of tourism here. But we don’t kid ourselves – we’re only at the beginning.

‘Tourism is perfect for me. I love people, I love history and heritage. I love the past, I love the future. My job is the best in the world. I get to put these things together for a purpose. Pig in shit doesn’t come close.’

31 | r:travel

‘We are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow, We do more than grow wheat and brew beer, We are vineyards of good year after good year, We reforest what we clear, Because we believe in generations beyond our own, Knowing now that so many of us, Have grown past what used to be, We can stand here today, Filled with all the hope people have, When they say things like some days’ Quote from Shane Koyczan’s love poem to Canada entitled We are More

highly Charlotte Shigwedha, Mondesa Township Tours

commended

Building bridges Visitors to Swakopmund, Namibia’s traditional summer capital, are invariably charmed by the surreal nature of this misty Skeleton Coast town.

Bavarian spires and elaborate German-style architecture host an eclectic coffee-shop culture; it’s a melting-pot of a town caught between the devil (the harsh wilderness of the Namib desert) and the deep blue sea (the Atlantic coastline).

Just beyond the town, though, is the African township of Mondesa, founded in the 1950s to provide housing for Swakopmund’s black workers.

Here Namibia’s social and financial divide is graphically displayed. Here there is poverty, overcrowding and AIDS. But here there is also resourcefulness, generosity and cultural diversity – epitomised

by Charlotte Shigwedha’s Mondesa Township Tours.

Charlotte, 30, grew up and still lives in Mondesa, so her tour is personal and respectful.

Visitors really meet the people, go into their homes, hear their stories. They meet Angelika, in her traditional Victorian-style Herero dress. A Nama couple teach the basic click sounds in their language. Visitors can sample traditional Oshiwambo

food and meet AIDS counsellor Naftalene who has opened her home to AIDS orphans.

Charlotte was working as a nanny when she entered her Township Tours concept in the 2002 Namibia Young Entrepreneurs Competition and from 300 entries emerged as one of the three winners. Since then she or one of her guides have hosted 1,300 guests on her unique tourist experience.

Charlotte’s tour makes a real difference to people’s lives: 60 per cent of the income goes back into Mondesa, as wages or to support community projects such as kindergartens. Her long-term aim is to build a community centre for young people.

But her impact is more than financial. Charlotte is building bridges between people.

She says: ‘I saw the potential of bringing tourists into the township and using tourism to build bridges between cultures as well to effect economic uplift. I encourage visitors to stroll around and chat to locals. Often, I find that those visitors whom we have taken to the townships are the ones who, long after they have returned to their home countries, remain in contact with me and remember these visits over and above much else.’ www.mondesatownship tours.com

32 | r:travel

Best Personal Contribution |

•

highly Dr Cheryl Mvula, Tribal Voice

commended

Communications Ltd

From short-changing to life-changing The remote Maasai villages around Kenya’s Maasai Mara Game Reserve are fascinating places for tourists to visit but, until recently, much of the money they paid to get there was not reaching the villagers.

Unbeknown to the tourists, many Kenyan driver guides who accompanied them on their safaris were taking up to 96 per cent of these visitor tour fees for themselves.

Now, thanks to the investigative efforts of Dr Cheryl Mvula, owner of the wildlife conservation and responsible tourism consultancy Tribal Voice Communications, an exploitation stretching back more than 30 years has ended.

Eleven-year- old Nataana Nkoloili from Enkereri Village told Cheryl that her parents were having difficulty sending her to school. ‘There was a time last year when I did not go to school for a long time. They had to sell a sheep so I could return.’

‘Nataana lives in a village which hosts up to 100 tourists a month,’ says Cheryl. ‘There

should be no need for such hardships.’

Armed with a grant from The Travel Foundation, Cheryl set up a pilot project mid-2006 in the Mara Triangle to help both tourists and Maasai villagers get more from these cultural visits and importantly to improve local lives.

Locals set up the Mara Triangle Maasai Villages Association to help run the project, getting communication going between villages and setting up supply agreements, transparent payment systems and a Responsible Code of Visitor Conduct to help tourists make more positive impacts on villages. Working together with the five cultural manyattas in the area, local safari lodges, ground handlers, the Kenya Association of Tour Operators and outbound UK tour operators, a watertight template has been created allowing the Maasai to earn their fair share of the revenue.

Making sure that this has a lasting impact, Cheryl has spent the last nine

image: Georgina Cranston - www.georginacranston.com

Maasai women in village

33 | r:travel

months capacity building in the villages.

The Maasai are now trained in marketing, business record-keeping, health and hygiene, and crafts development, ensuring they are equipped with the skills and confidence needed for this project to be sustainable.

The project has led to amazing things for villagers in the Mara Triangle. With money they’ve earned they’ve expanded their local school, hired more teachers, developed adult education, installed a rainwater harvesting system for drinking water and built long drop toilets to reduce risk of disease in the villages.

Cheryl says, ‘The Maasai have been exploited for a very long time, but we have started something together, which will continue for many years to come – until all cultural manyattas in Maasailand are receiving equitable returns from their tourism enterprises. I’m happy that we have taken the first steps along that road.’ www.tribal-voice.co.uk

winner Azafady

The Magic of Madagascar Giving up your time to help poor communities in the developing world – whether as part of a holiday, a gap year or career break, sounds like the purest form of responsible tourism. But every year organisations such as VSO and Earthwatch issue warnings to would-be voluntourists to beware of the badly-planned scheme where the only winner is the travel company that pockets the volunteer’s cash.

Thank heavens, then, for organisations such as those featured over the next few pages…

‘If

you go into a room and start talking about Madagascar, most people will think you’re talking about that awful Disney film.’

Mark Jacobs is under no illusion that he has his work cut out raising the profile of his organisation’s work. Azafady, launched ten years ago with the primary aim of tree conservation, is a UK-registered charity and NGO working to ease poverty and suffering and stop environmental damage in southeast Madagascar.

Madagascar, located in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, is the fourth largest island in the world. With more than 70 per cent of its 19 million inhabitants living on less than US$1 a day, it’s one of the world’s poorest countries.

In terms of biological diversity though, Madagascar remains among the richest places on the planet. However, this natural wealth is threatened by the extreme poverty of the human population. Only about a quarter of the population has access to safe drinking water – as few as a tenth in rural areas – and the infant mortality rate is a horrendous one in ten. With about 90 per cent of its forest now gone, and most of its species found nowhere else on earth, Madagascar is recognised as one of the planet’s top conservation priorities. Yet still, more

people know it as the island home of a bunch of talking cartoon animals.

Azafady runs a quarterly volunteering programme called the Pioneer scheme which takes out groups of around 20 volunteers of all ages and backgrounds, from around the world on a ten-week placement. There, they’ll work alongside local Malagasy staff, building schools, helping to improve access to clean drinking water and basic healthcare, by digging wells and installing pharmacies, and supporting reforestation work and sustainable livelihood schemes. In the past two years, Azafady pioneers have built and furnished six schools and planted 10,000 seedlings of two endangered species of palm.

‘Volunteering for Azafady is not a holiday,’ says Mark. ‘The good time for the individual is a by-product. Our aim is not to entertain. Our aim is to help some of the poorest communities on earth to get by and pull themselves out of poverty ‘We’re giving people a snapshot into the work of a conservation charity.

The difference between us and other volunteering organisations is that we are first and foremost a charity. We have long-established links with the community and are one of the largest employers in the area, with 80 staff.

34| r:travel

‘Sustainable livelihoods are about building the capacity for people to help themselves out of poverty, to be able to earn an income by way of alternatives to slash and burn agriculture which has decimated the forest.’

A typical Pioneer placement will cost £2,000 – which Azafady encourages its volunteers to raise through sponsorship schemes which also help to raise awareness – plus flights (around £750), and visa, insurance and general living expenses of another £350, all of which volunteers pay out of their own pocket.

Azafady is proud that 90 per cent of the money it raises goes to support its work, with the vast majority of that sent directly to Madagascar.

All volunteers are given a copy of Azafady’s Responsible Tourism policy, which includes advice about interacting with local people, environmental impacts, water usage, camping and waste management.

‘I speak to people all the time who come back from other volunteering programmes disillusioned that the large sums of money they paid did not get to the right people and places,’ says Mark.

‘We find a lot of people have a lifechanging experience, that will stay with them forever. Some do go on to do

Best Volunteering Organisation |

•

What the judges said...

‘Azafady has demonstrated real achievements in meeting the locally defined needs of communities in Madagascar. It produces detailed reports on the impacts and is completely transparent about where the volunteers’ money goes’

development work, most stay in touch with Azafady and its work.

‘Madagascar has a real magic to it,’ he adds. ‘The people compel you to stay involved. There is such a warmth and humility about them in the face of some pretty horrendous poverty. People will greet you and give you a bunch of bananas to say thank you. It’s quite a humbling experience for people who come there from the West.’

Gaby Smith, from Cheshire, was 24 when she decided to become a Pioneer. She was halfway through a masters degree in environment, international development and policy at Sussex University. After spending some time volunteering in Azafady’s London office to get a feel for the work, she went out to Madagascar on a ten-week placement.

‘Our group did a lot of work on creating home vegetable gardens as a means of helping local women improve their food

security. Those gardens are still flourishing,’ says Gaby, now 27, who has gone on to co-ordinate further projects for Azafady.

‘We learnt basic Malagasy which meant we could talk to local people in their own language. That makes such a difference.

And you get a very warm welcome. It’s clear that people really want you to be there. And I particularly like that you can see where the money goes. There are no 4x4s; you travel round in a huge cattle truck and all the staff are local Malagasy.’

Azafady’s next priority is to build up a new volunteer programme called Lemur Venture in a bid to halt the decline of this endangered animal. Four eight-week schemes are planned for 2008, in January, April, July and October.

Anyone wishing to volunteer will still have to raise funds before they go, but, says Mark Jacobs , lemur suits are available… www.madagascar.co.uk

35 | r:travel

highly

commended

Camps International

A foot in both camps Camps International is enduring proof that you can combine a traditional holiday with a proper volunteering experience and not fall short on either.

Despite only being five years old, CI has been shortlisted in the Responsible Tourism Awards every one of the four years they have been running.  Most itineraries will involve visitors staying in several camp locations as each place has a purpose which is to either support community or wildlife projects, give you a place to chill on the beach, or act as home for your safari.

Accommodation ranges from luxury tents with en-suite to a simple dome tent in the bush or on the side of a mountain.

Volunteers of all ages, including family groups and gap students, get the chance to work on projects that have been developed in partnership with local communities.

The flagship schemes have been in Kenya. CI has recently completed a three-year development programme aimed at improving the facilities at Makongemni Primary School, in an area where more than 60 per cent of people live below the poverty line and few children have access to education. By improving learning facilities, providing better sanitation and clean drinking water, as well as offering 17 scholarships to enable children to progress on to

36 | r:travel

secondary education, attendance has risen by 75 per cent, from 330 to 576 pupils.

CI has also provided clean water for more than 500 families in the surrounding community, significantly reducing the incidence of water-borne diseases.

Most inspiringly, CI is now donating the entire camp here to the community to enable them to run their own eco-tourism initiative.

The success of its Kenya model has enabled CI to expand into Tanzania where it is now rebuilding a large local school.

Other achievements include planting 70,000 trees; promoting the ‘good woods’ initiative that encourages tourists to buy sustainable wood souvenirs; and a

Best Volunteering Organisation | highly

commended

•

Quest

The million pound quest

regular collection of waste paper from eight major coastal hotels which is used to manufacture elephant dung paper, the proceeds of which (around £2,500) go back into the Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary, a locally-owned eco-tourism initiative. Volunteers have vaccinated chickens and de-wormed goats, and taught a rural community to grow aloe vera as an economically viable source of income.

Amy Bentley, wildlife programme manager, says: ‘Our commitment to local people and the environment is not a by-product of our programmes but core to everything we do.’ www.campsinternational.com

‘We didn’t just come home with the odd souvenir and scenic photograph, we came back having built four dams from scratch, planted hundreds of trees and helped the most deserving people have a better standard of living. An indescribable feeling! If that isn’t an example of ‘responsible tourism’ then what is?’

With testimonials such as the one above, it’s not surprising Quest has been awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ prize in this year’s Responsible Tourism Awards.

In the past 11 years the volunteering organisation has raised more than £1 million for its projects in Africa and Latin America, by sending eager volunteers – many of them gap-year students and people on a career break – on life-changing expeditions for up to six weeks. And whereas a lot of other groups offer short-term aid, all Quest’s projects are set up as long-term partnerships with local communities.

Recent projects have included improving educational facilities in Malawi, Swaziland and Tanzania; improving healthcare and housing in Malawi, Brazil and Peru; providing a decent water supply for villagers in Kenya; conserving forest in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Kenya; protecting whale sharks in Mozambique.

Quest’s guiding principle is to put the needs of its partners before the demands

37 | r:travel

of its volunteers. So it only supports development projects and conservation efforts that are driven by community need.

Volunteers receive comprehensive pre-departure training, including cultural awareness and language courses. Once on a project they’ll stay in basic local accommodation and eat similar food to the locals. There are strict guidelines on drinking alcohol, dress-codes and displays of Western wealth.

If that sounds a bit severe, it’s clear from feedback on all sides, that it’s the right approach. Redson Chamveka, Malawi project manager of the Joshua Orphan Care Trust commented: ‘Cultural differences are a barrier to development but the way the Quest volunteers are interacting with the people of Malawi breaks down those barriers and makes working among people of different cultures easier.’

As for the volunteers themselves, the response of gap-year volunteer Rachel O’Neill, who spent time at a project in Malawi, is typical: ‘My relationship with the local community gave me a much clearer understanding of the lives they lead. I learned much about my own life and reassessed my choices and methods of dealing with the things that life invariably throws up.’ www.experiencequest.com

•| Best Volunteering Organisation highly

commended

people and places

Matching people & places

Volunteering responsibly does not replace the traditional holiday.

It will be emotionally exhausting and mentally challenging – but it can also be a profound and life-enhancing experience if you are well-prepared, well-matched with your host community and well-supported in your endeavours.

Like its fellow highly commended volunteering organisations, People and Places prides itself on offering fully transparent programmes, and works with local partners – from respected responsible tour operators to international NGOs – to match volunteers’ specific skills and experience to local need.

Since its inception in March 2006, People and Places has matched and placed more than 200 volunteers in the Gambia, South Africa, Nepal, India, Bali and Madagascar – and expects to place a further 300 in 2008.

At least 80 per cent of volunteers’ payments reach their host country, with volunteers paying the local partner directly, not People and Places.

One example of local economic benefit is the programme at Mapoch, a rural Ndebele community in Gauteng, South Africa. Volunteers have worked with the community to build extra space at the Kagiso pre-school, funded play equipment and

sponsored by: Lonely Planet Lonely Planet is delighted to be sponsoring this year’s Best Volunteering Organisation category at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2007. This year marks the publication of Volunteer: A Traveller’s Guide to Making a Difference Around the World, Lonely Planet’s guide to the world

of volunteering. Lonely Planet remains committed to travel as a positive force, and volunteering is a welcome and growing trend towards giving something back to the communities impacted by tourism. www.lonelyplanet.com

38 | r:travel

trained local women to use it, thus improving facilities from basic to an environment in which mothers are keen to place their children.

Volunteers have worked with the same community, providing training in hospitality and IT, and building the capacity of the community guesthouse. All People and Places volunteers stay in the guesthouse while working with the village.

Programme director Sallie Grayson stresses that volunteers are not replacing local jobs.

‘Our volunteers work alongside local employees, not instead of them,’ she says. ‘Placements do not reduce or jeopardise local employment. The most effective volunteers work with and learn from the community, showing them respect, helping them carry out their own objectives, offering advice and encouragement, and increasing their capacity to develop their own futures.

‘Volunteers should be a positive presence, a source of inspiration and empowerment. Outsiders who impose their own cultural norms or their own agenda, and fail to include local people in decisions, can leave behind disruption and even destruction, and more problems than they solve, making life even tougher for economically poor people.’ www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk

responsible volunteering is no holiday – not even a responsible one

you will work with, not instead of, local people your skills will be matched to their needs you will know where and how your money is used

your work will be part of a sustainable programme

www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk +44 (0) 8700 460 479

people and places: responsible volunteering

Responsible Travel Experts East Africa Most adverts we run in magazines result in absolutely nothing.

On the other hand, when you book with us, we use a significant proportion of your money to fund our projects. The results of this mean a great deal to those who benefit. When we commit to a community partnership or wildlife conservation programme, we deliver on our promises, no excuses.

For us it’s not just a case of trying to make parts of our business responsible……..our business is responsible travel.

Call 0844 800 1127 or visit: www.campsinternational.com

winner Blue o Two, UK

Deep and meaningful

What the judges said... ‘Blue O Two have developed a new business approach to diving in the Red Sea, in a highly competitive price-driven market, demonstrating that responsible diving is possible in a mainstream business and establishing a way of doing business which is causing their competitors to become more responsible’

40 | r:travel

Best in a Marine Environment |

•

Top, MY Blue Horizon, the second of the Blue O Two fleet; above the vibrant reefs of the Red Sea

J

ason Strickland and Nathan Tyler loved the Egyptian Red Sea. They loved diving. And they loved taking groups of British servicemen and women out to enjoy some of the best coral reefs in the world.

What they didn’t like was the standard of service they often received. They didn’t like how the crews were treated and sometimes they particularly didn’t like how the reefs were being treated by the ‘liveaboards’ that take eager divers to some of the most remote dive spots.

And five years ago they did something about it. To the bemused amazement of the existing dive tourism industry, they decided to turn the sector on its head. Rather than rent existing boats, they decided to design and build their own. Rather than let local agents handle their customers in Egypt they opened their own offices and employed locals as equals.

Considering that a top-of-the-range liveaboard costs about £1 million to build and kit out and considering that both men were in their mid twenties, it is remarkable not only that the duo survived but, in fact, they flourished and now own three boats, employ nearly 50 people and are deeply involved in improving standards across the board in dive travel in the Red Sea. ‘We wanted to build our own boats to our standards,’ says 29-year-old Jason. ‘Run them the way we think they should be and treat our customers the way they deserve to be treated. It’s all about quality and detail.’

Nathan and his fiancée Natalie run the boats from Hurghada, and Jason handles the marketing and sales from the UK. They have cherry-picked a young, highly motivated team. Key is Mohammed Gamea, the 32-year-old skipper on their flagship Blue Horizon, who is also general manager of the operation in

41 | r:travel

•| Best in a Marine Environment Egypt. The highly experienced captain (it’s in his blood – his father is one of the Red Sea’s most experienced dive boat skippers) personally oversaw the construction and fitting out of the first two boats in Alexandria.

They pay their crews a bit more, give them a share of profits, make sure their living quarters are clean and air-conditioned and even teach all their crew to dive – from kitchen boy to chief engineer. Not surprisingly, it works.

‘It was a terrific struggle to start with,’ said Nathan. ‘People thought we were stark staring mad. It was very hard to be taken seriously and there was a lot of suspicion. It is also quite a ruthless and political business world.

‘But we stuck at it, treated people fairly and honestly and delivered what we promised. It has been the most amazing adventure and the most rewarding thing to do. I think one of the most important things we have done is to listen to our staff and to involve them in the business.’

The diving in the Red Sea is world-class and the only way to access the best sites is aboard the liveaboard boats which take 15 to 25 guests to the more remote areas of Egypt’s deep south.

Healthy, wild coral reefs are bursting with life. Sharks patrol the open ocean, mantas and dolphins delight lucky divers.

But it is far too easy to destroy the golden egg. Too many divers, too many boats, and bad management can quickly put too much stress on such a complex environment.

‘We all have a duty, a responsibility to get this right,’ said Jason.

‘We see every day the damage that can be done. There is no excuse for us to make it worse.’

The company is now working with the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) to draw up new standards for all dive boats operating in the Red Sea. All Blue O Two guests are briefed in detail about how to sustain the oceans and the company has now employed a marine biologist to carry out a research project into oceanic whitetip sharks, and to involve divers in the study.

‘We’ve got a long way to go,’ said Jason. ‘We might not win every battle and we’ve made our fair share of mistakes, but it is amazing what you can do when you try.’ www.blueotwo.com

Above, a hawksbill turtle Red Sea; left, divers aboard a RIB before a dive charles hood

sponsored by: Tasmania Tourist Board Since the historic day 25 years ago when Australians joined Tasmanians in an overwhelmingly victorious voice to prevent the damming of the world’s last wild river, the Franklin, and the subsequent setting up of the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area, our temperate island of mountains, lakes, rainforest and pristine beaches has been an icon of wilderness and wildlife. With more than 40 per cent of the state now protected by law, Tasmania remains focused on the need to stay true to its cause. Yet while tens of thousands come every year to learn about and savour our glorious temperate paradise, few realise that what lies below the surface

of our unpolluted waters is possibly even more magnificent. National Geographic described Tasmania’s marine environment as the ‘greatest accessible underwater wilderness in the world.’ Slowly, we are all learning to respect what lies beneath, and understand that while it may not be so obvious to many, the health of the world’s extraordinary marine environment has a huge bearing on life as we know it today. No matter how small the voice, the message can still be loud and clear. Every effort to preserve our marine environment for people to enjoy, today and in the future, deserves recognition. That is why we chose to sponsor this award.

42 | r:travel

www.discovertasmania.co.uk

WKH 5HG 6HD WR GLYH IRU 7KLQN 5HG 6HD OLYHDERDUGV 7KLQN EOXH R WZR *LYH SXUSRVH WR \RXU GLYLQJ -RLQ XV RQ RQH RI RXU QHZ HFR IRFXVHG LWLQHUDULHV DQG SOD\ \RXU SDUW LQ SUHVHUYLQJ WKH 5HG 6HD¶V XQLTXH HFRV\VWHP ZLWK EOXH R WZR

EOXH R WZR ³6XVWDLQDEOH 5HHI´ ,WLQHUDU\

EOXH R WZR ³3URMHFW 6KDUN´ ,WLQHUDU\

ZZZ EOXHRWZR FRP UW

7HO (PDLO LQIR#EOXHRWZR FRP

•| Best in a Marine Environment highly

commended

Blue Ventures, UK

Goodwill venture Tourism in areas of widespread poverty can present a moral maze.

On one hand, the traveller is keen to contribute to the local economy, yet so many tourism businesses seem to be detached from their surrounding communities, taking advantage of cheap labour, but keeping themselves very much apart.

With Blue Ventures’ eco-camp in the remote fishing village of Andavadoaka in Madagascar, local people are key to the project.

Launched in 2004 to create a pilot marine reserve that would preserve the environment in the interest of both locals and visitors, the scheme now encompasses 21 neighbouring villages, whose members are fully involved in the planning and development of the network.

Blue Ventures clients are put into volunteer positions focused on marine conservation. Alongside the fun of scuba diving and marine surveys of one of the world’s most important coral reefs – the Grand Recife de Tulear – they are collating hard data that is used to monitor the health of the reef, an ancient resource on which local communities have depended for decades.

Blue Ventures is not simply a travel business with a conscience, it brings large communities of people together, empowering them to mould a brand of tourism that truly is ecological in its approach and execution. And the goodwill has been reciprocated – in March 2007 the village of Andavadoaka donated a prime beach site of 10 hectares for Blue Ventures to develop a travel lodge that will be managed by the village itself.

‘One of our greatest achievements so far has been studies on octopus,’ said Blue Ventures MD Richard Nimmo. ‘The villages rely on octopus as commercial catch, but our study confirmed what they suspected, that catches were getting smaller.

The villages agreed not to fish some of their key octopus collecting sites for six months, and there was subsequently a major recovery in the octopus population.’ The success of this particular project has led to a nationwide seasonal ban on octopus collection, proving that data collected by volunteers can affect policy-making at a national government level. www.blueventures.org

•

44 | r:travel

winner La Ruta Moskitia, Honduras

Gateway to nature

All the cliches about unspoilt locations and getting off the beaten track apply in Honduras. In La Moskitia, a community-owned tour operator has established responsible tourism in a place where it never existed before

T

here are no roads in La Moskitia, a vast, isolated, coastal region of Honduras, dominated by the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, a two million-acre UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest remaining tract of rainforest in Central America.

To get there, you either have to fly in on one of the limited flights, or trek overland by truck, taxi and bus, to Batalla, on the western edge of the reserve, where you’ll switch to a boat. And that’s how you’ll get around from then on, exploring the reserve’s maze of lagoons and rivers in a small motorised dugout canoe called a pipante.

There are also no banks, no cashpoints, no credit cards and few phones. And, until a couple of years ago, there were few tourists.

Those who did find their way here arrived with foreign-owned tour companies which brought in their own food and supplies and paid local guides and boat drivers horribly low wages. Accommodation consisted

of Spartan guest rooms and unsanitary pit toilets, and no tourism revenues were contributed to the conservation and management of the reserve.

Then along came La Ruta Moskitia, and changed all that. Four different ethnic communities – the Miskito, Pech, Garifuna, and Tawahka – came together to form a community-owned and operated company that is the very essence of responsible, sustainable tourism. It built beautiful new eco-lodges – complete with showers and flush toilets – and palm-thatched cabanas and trained local people to develop and grow the new business, resulting in 150 new well-paid jobs which support over 750 family members.

And finally, La Ruta Moskitia recently began dedicating a large percentage of its revenues to support conservation projects in the reserve. The local communities have bought in to the idea that preserving the biodiversity of the reserve will help shift the local economy from one based on taking out resources – over-fishing, over-hunting, logging and

46 | r:travel

1) The wild and isolated coast at sunset 2)A Larumo guide shows how to local fruit 3) Guests join a Garifuna dance 4) Exploring the mangrove in a local canoe – a pipante 5) Newly built cabanas

Best in a Park or Protected Area |

1

Mac Stone

2

3

4

Matt humke

Matt humke

5

Mac Stone

Matt humke

47 | r:travel

•

sponsored by:

intensive agriculture – to one based on ecotourism.

More than twice the number of visitors now come – though those numbers are still small, as tour groups never exceed 12 clients who come on four- to eight-day nature-based adventure tours, to explore the four distinct ecosystems – tropical rainforest, lowland, pine savannah and coast – and to spot crocodiles and jaguars, sea turtles and manatees, and nearly 400 bird species, including the Great Green Macaw.

Importing any kind of food or other product into the remote reserve results in a considerable carbon footprint. So all food is sourced locally – from fresh vegetables, poultry, fish and meat, to jams, bread and tortillas.

‘This has been something totally new for the local communities,’ says La Ruta Moskitia’s manager, Elmor Wood. ‘But they have really embraced the whole concept. People are proud of their communities and are glad that foreign visitors can come to see who we are and what we have.’

There has been another welcome benefit since the creation of La Ruta Moskitia (despite the inevitable presence of mosquitoes, the name Moskitia is not derived from the malarial insects, but from the English word musket, the weapons having been given to the natives by early European explorers) and that’s the conservation of local culture as well as the environment.

Miskito Indian groups present evenings of indigenous music and dance for La Ruta Moskitia visitors. ‘What is phenomenal about these cultural evenings,’ says Elmor, ‘is that as soon as the first note is played, small children from around the community come running out of their homes to sit among the visitors to listen to the songs which tell stories they have rarely heard before in their own native language.’

La Ruta’s next move is to establish the reserve’s first indigenous conservation NGO, which will allow it to apply for additional funds to expand the community projects.

‘Tourism is something new and small,’ says Elmor.

‘There is great space for developing it, but we have to do it well, do it right.’

Conservation International Conservation International (CI) is a global leader in biodiversity conservation and has 20 years of experience working on tourism projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia/Pacific regions. CI’s mission is to conserve the Earth’s living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature. With 700 million people traveling each year and more than 33,000 protected areas worldwide, nature-based tourism is a growing source of revenue for the management of Protected Areas, and the communities living within and around them.

Tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries, drawing an estimated $3 trillion in revenues each year. CI’s ecotourism projects help forge a direct link between the economic benefits from ecotourism and the protection of biodiversity.

Nature-based tourism is growing at a rate of 10 per cent each year and can generate viable economic alternatives for local people living near Biodiversity Hotspots and areas of high biodiversity. In South Africa, for example, approximately 60 per cent of all foreign tourists visit a national park or game reserve. With this income, the South African National Parks Board finances up to 80 per cent of its annual budget from tourism receipts alone.

While unstructured, poorly-planned tourism can lead to problems such as waste, habitat destruction and the displacement of local people and wildlife, well-planned nature-based tourism can provide tremendous incentives for conservation. Thoughtful tourism policies, strategic planning, and community involvement in nature-based tourism development can help ensure sustainable use of natural resources with maximum benefits for the local communities who are their stewards. www.conservation.org

www.larutamoskitia.com

What the judges said...

‘La Ruta Moskitia has worked with four different indigenous communities to create a series of experiences and products which are complementary, avoiding the danger of competition between villages, and has created 150 jobs.’

The Jalapo biodiversity corridor, in the northern portion of the Cerrado hotspot, harbours isolated local communities that live within and around major protected areas in Brazil

48 | r:travel

Best in a Park or Protected Area | highly

commended

Chalalan Ecolodge, Bolivia

Chalalán/Spanowicz

Eco-type

jaguar A decade ago, members of a tribe of Quetchua-Tacana Indians from San Jose de Uchupiamonas in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park founded a lodge where they could show tourists around their native forest in an ecologically sound way.

Chalalan Ecolodge is the result – one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and now a role model for indigenous eco-tourism.

Here, visitors are immersed in the jungle 24 hours a day, serenaded by birdsong and the cries of howler monkeys. Local guides take you on jungle paths where you’ll see tapirs, wild boars, deer, badgers, sloths, armadillos, and hopefully catch a glimpse of a jaguar or leopard.

There are many amphibians and reptiles around, such as snakes and crocodiles. There is also an amazing number of insects, many of which have still not been registered by scientists.

Stunning by day, it’s at night that the outsider can truly appreciate the magical mood of this remarkable location. On a canoe trip out into

the lagoon you shine a torch to pick out the eerie glowing red eyes of the caiman.

Chalalan Ecolodge remains 100 per cent community-owned and operated and the community is thriving, with better schooling for its children, improved access to health care and cleaner water.

The project is conserving not only the bio-diversity of the jungle, but the cultural identity and ancestral traditions of the Indians.

Families who had left the area are returning – and Chalalan’s conservation efforts in the park have seen several species reverse a decline in numbers – the spider monkey, black caiman, wild boar and jaguar.

Built and maintained to make a minimal impact on the surrounding environment, the lodge relies totally on solar energy or liquid gas for light, refrigeration and food preparation.

There’s no hot water for showers, but it’s testament to the magic of Chalalan that you’ll hardly notice. www.chalalan.com

Chalalán/Spanowicz

Chalalán/Spanowicz

Chalalán/Spanowicz

49 | r:travel

•

winner Apex Hotels Ltd, UK

‘What we do, others could certainly follow’ A hotel is just a place to stay, right? One is much like any other? Wrong. The best hotels are going to extraordinary lengths to improve their environmental profile

F

rom the street, with its Harry Potter-like name of Seething Lane, The Apex City of London hotel doesn’t look like a star. A rather dull, red-brick building rises seven floors above a glass-fronted lobby and restaurant.

It used to be the offices of an insurance company, and is pretty much the most anonymous-looking facade in the immediate vicinity – and with Tower of London a medieval stone’s throw away, it’s a pretty impressive vicinity.

But appearances, of course, can be so deceptive… Step through the doors and the first clue is right there – a big multicoloured lifesize statue of a cow.

The rainforest cow, refugee from the 2006 Edinburgh Cow Parade art event is something of an environmental mascot for this hotel, which has now added a Responsible Tourism Award to a string of accolades for its environmental and social initiatives.

And what’s clear from a stay here – or indeed at the Apex’s four other hotels in Edinburgh and Dundee – is that it’s not only eco-lodges or rural homestays that can have a reduced carbon footprint. Apex hotels are at the cutting edge of what can be done in a city centre location.

All are four-star contemporary hotels,

on brownfield sites. All have stylish, ensuite bedrooms, smart, popular restaurants and conference facilities; three have gyms, two have pools and one has a spa. But all have considerably reduced their energy and water consumption – in London by a billbusting 42 per cent.

The list of environmental boxes being ticked here is impressive. For a guest the obvious ones are familiar enough - energyefficient lighting, walk-in showers and dual-flush loos, air-conditioning and lighting operated by the key card, for example.

But the Apex has flow restrictors and aerator taps and showerheads in those bathrooms – and the hot water temperature is 10 degrees lower than the average hotel; the air handling units are switched off in vacant spaces at night and run at the bare minimum in public areas at night; toiletries are refilled and soaps donated to local charities. Ecofriendly chemicals are used in cleaning and laundering towels and bed linen. The hotel buys recycled goods where it can, sources food and beverages through local suppliers, reduces packaging coming in and recycles practically everything – paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, cooking oil, toner cartridges, dry cleaning coat hangers, cd’s, polythene wrap, mobile phones and polystyrene.

50 | r:travel

What the judges said...

‘Apex Hotels deserve this award for their urban regeneration through converting office blocks on brown field sites into hotels and ensuring that they are as environmentally friendly as possible. ’

A carbon calculator on their website works out guests’ transport emissions and Apex also calculates carbon emissions for events, conferences, weddings and accommodation and passes the offsets on to Climate Care’s worldwide projects.

Such initiatives are not only good sense environmentally, they’ve become a USP for business. The Apex City of London caters mostly to business travellers during the week with a £245 a night rack rate for a (very nice) standard room, and is boosting its appeal to tourists with a range of weekend deals. But sales director Sara Thomson reports that many corporate clients, increasingly concerned about improving their own green credentials, are now booking this hotel on the strength of its green policies.

And that’s the key point, really. There’s no earthly reason why all hotels can’t be run this way. It’s better for business and for the planet.

Apex has its own environmental director, Jo Harbisher, who is supported by a green team and green champions – regular staff members who help identify and implement new ways to improve the environmental initiatives and awareness. They’ve become increasingly pro-active within the industry, presenting at seminars and conferences and holding workshops with suppliers.

Best Large Hotel |

•

‘In terms of how far we take our environmental initiatives it’s really a case of doing as much as we can and at every opportunity we encourage others to follow in our footsteps,’ says Jo. ‘What we do, all hotels could certainly follow. We started off with the basic principles of reduce, re-use and recycle and while we still do this on a daily basis we have evolved to cover a variety of initiatives such as LED lighting, building management systems, introducing combined heat and power systems not to mention incorporating sustainability into our designs for new developments and refurbishments.’

And the customers are evidently satisfied, certainly in London. Out of around 200 guest reviews of the Apex City of London on top hotel-finding website, Trip Advisor, very nearly all are full of praise, putting the Apex at number 4 out of 1018 hotels in the capital.

The Apex London is expanding. It has taken over an adjoining vacant office building overlooking St Olav’s Church and expects to add a further 48 rooms to its current 130 next year. Expect more of the award-winning same. www.apexhotels.co.uk

sponsored by: Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Global Hyatt Corporation, one of the world’s premier hotel companies, offers travellers more than 735 hotels and resorts (more than 136,000 rooms) in more than 44 countries. The company’s affiliates own, operate, manage and franchise Hyatt branded hotels and resorts under the Park Hyatt™, Grand Hyatt™, Hyatt Regency™, Hyatt Resorts™, Hyatt™, Hyatt Place™ and Hyatt Summerfield Suites™ brands. In April 2007, Hyatt launched its newest global brand, Andaz™. Global Hyatt Corporation is also the owner of Hyatt Vacation Ownership, Inc operator of the Hyatt Vacation Club and fractional residential properties and US Franchise Systems, Inc, which franchises

Hawthorn Suites and Microtel Inns and Suites.

Today, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® specialise in deluxe hotels with meeting facilities and special services for the business traveller, operate hotels in major and secondary cities, airport locations, and leading resort areas throughout the world. In many cities Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® have made a significant contribution to revitalising the area and spurring business and population growth. With the new hotels under development, Hyatt International Corporation will be creating more than 20,000 job opportunities throughout the world. Hyatt Hotels & Resorts® have a reputation not only for their

physical distinctiveness, incorporating local art and design, but also for the amenities and services provided. These special services include Hyatt Gold Passport®, Hyatt’s renowned recognition and award programme for the frequent traveller; Regency Club® and Grand Club®, VIP concierge floors; specialty restaurants; complimentary morning newspaper; and custom catering.

‘Hyatt is proud to be associated with individuals, companies and associations that are involved in enviromental and social responsibility. We strongly believe in the sustainability of tourism and the future development in this field.

51 | r:travel

Recognition in this field is vital, and the recognition of these people who are providing a significant contribution across the globe, is critical for all of us in this industry. Responsible travel is a growing movement and an increasing trend that we must all be aware of and focus on.’ www.hyatt.com

highly Evason Phuket & Six Senses Spa, Thailand

A hotel that is heaps better John Gray is not a fan of hotels. The 62-year-old environmentalist, famous for his sea canoe tours of Phuket in Thailand for nearly two decades, is naturally sceptical of any eco-tourism initiatives touted by hotel owners.

But he’s very impressed with the Evason Phuket.

The hotel and its Six Senses Spa is located at Rawai Beach on the south eastern side of Phuket Island. It is set amongst 64 acres of beautifully landscaped tropical gardens, facing the Andaman Sea. The resort embodies the Evason philosophy of redefining experiences, and is a refreshing reinterpretation of a five-star resort designed to appeal to today’s more sophisticated travellers.

But John Gray isn’t bothered with all that.

What’s made this veteran campaigner a fan is the Evason’s compost heap. It’s just one of many green policies, developed by environment coordinator Arnfinn Oines.

‘Evason Phuket has won many tourism awards, but since I consider most hotel awards self-serving prattle, I was suspicious,’ says Gray. ‘After I took a closer look, however, it appears that Evason Phuket “walks the walk” when it comes to the environment.’

Kiattipong Panchee & Vichit Yantapanit

commended

Among its ‘best practices’ are: • Waste reduction. Everything is collected and separated – glass, metal, plastic, vegetable matter, cooking oils, paper and cardboard cartons, ceramic, and toxic and wet garbage.

• Composting. The Evason gives environmentally concerned guests free tours of its unique Eco-Park, where, last year, 50 tons of kitchen waste and 50 tons of garden waste were composted.

• Social responsibility. Evason Phuket donates 0.5 per cent of its revenue into community welfare schemes; that’s around £41,000 a year. However, about £5-7million of revenue goes back to the local community through taxes, property maintenance, salaries and buying locally. Eighty per cent of products are sourced locally, and 97.5 per cent of its staff are Thai nationals.

Arnfinn Oines

More than just doing things right, Evason Phuket wears its heart on its sleeve. As Oines says, ‘We aren’t trying to make anybody look bad, but we do want to enlist others into comprehensive environmental practices.’

Resort manager Claude Baltes adds: ‘Hopefully, most Phuket hotels are doing many of the same things. The question is if any other hotels do all the things we do.’

Last word from Gray: ‘If all hotels were like Evason Phuket, I would only complain about burning money!’ www.sixsenses.com/evason-phuket Arnfinn Oines

52 | r:travel

Best Large Hotel |

•

highly Radisson SAS Hotel, Edinburgh, UK

commended

Who dares wins The Radisson SAS in Edinburgh is a nice hotel.

Situated in the city centre on the historic Royal Mile halfway between Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House and a five-minute taxi ride from the conference centre, it’s handily placed for tourists and business travellers alike.

It’s a four-star hotel, with 238 rooms and suites, its own leisure club, bar and restaurant plus conference and banqueting facilities. So far, so reassuringly normal.

But what marks the Radisson SAS Hotel, Edinburgh out among its peers is that it’s Scotland’s first hotel to hire a full-time environmental advisor.

Alexandra Hammond was recruited as an experiment in January – and the experiment is working. This 26-year-old American smart cookie is passionate about her job and has overseen a raft of environmental and responsible business initiatives.

Electricity usage is down by 9.6 per cent (saving £22,000 a year) and landfill waste was reduced by 50 per cent after the introduction of a cardboard compactor and can crusher for recycling. A switch to energy-saving light-bulbs saved another £14,000. In addition, 78 per cent of staff have been

Radisson staff get involved in the hotel’s own carbon-offsetting projects, including planting Carrifran wildwood trees in Dumfries and Galloway

trained in environmental/social responsibility. In May the hotel received a Gold Award in the Green Tourism Business Scheme, and many organisations are coming to the hotel on the back of its environmental policies. The hotel also works with a local homeless charity FourSquare, helping them to get work in the hospitality sector, and supports many local tourism companies The money saved has been good for the bottom line, but, says Alexandra, the real reward has been that the hotel has significantly reduced its impact on the environment. Now there are plans to extend her pioneering role with the recruitment of more environmental advisors throughout the 300-strong hotel group. And the lessons learnt at the Radisson, Edinburgh, are also being shared throughout hotels and suppliers in Scotland via tourism and environmental groups. The hotel has also signed up to Scottish Tourism Innovation Group’s Scotlandwide carbon offset scheme, Climate Change Scotland.

‘We do like to think of ourselves as pioneers,’ says Alexandra. ‘But what’s particularly pleasing is that the kind of thing we’re doing is so warmly received these days.

People are realising there is a lasting benefit in taking this on board.’ www.edinburgh.radissonsas.com

53 | r:travel

winner Finca Esperanza Verde Ecolodge, Nicaragua

‘Finca Esperanza Verde Ecolodge is using tourism to generate local economic development in a rural area of Nicaragua through improving infrastructure, creating employment and enterprise opportunities and demonstrating what a positive difference tourism can make in a local community’

Coffee Culture

W

ho among us was thinking about solar power in the Seventies? Concern for the environment married with such forward thinking was far from mainstream at the time, yet Lonna Harkrader and her architect husband Roger were pioneers, building solar homes in their local community. They were also peacemakers and political activists, championing causes outside their North Carolina community; in the Eighties, they took the road to Washington and their opposition to the Contra war in Nicaragua directly to President Ronald Reagan. They even upped sticks and took their two young daughters to live in Nicaragua for a year.

Today, the pair have combined their ecological awareness with their experiences from those days to spearhead a drive which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a town in one of the poorest regions of Nicaragua, the country itself second only to Haiti as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The revenue in large part comes from the production of an organically-certified gourmet Arabica coffee, now sold throughout the US, which

has won awards for its quality. The rest has come about through Finca Esperanza Verde Ecolodge, or Green Hope Farm, which has also earned plaudits for its uniqueness, environmental principles, and significant beneficial impact on the remote mountainous community.

Along with the coffee farm and a private forest nature reserve, the Finca Esperanza last year brought US$130,000

“

security and health insurance provision.

Up to 26 visitors at a time can stay at the Finca for a holiday experience which gives them the opportunity to be immersed in the community. They can take part in a coffee-tasting session, help harvest the crop or learn how to cook a local food speciality from one of San Ramón’s best home cooks, take a jewellery-making class or visit the butterfly farm. The environmental footprint of visitors and staff is minimised through reuse and recycling of almost every item of waste, with cloth rather than paper napkins, no plastic drinks bottles on sale and, of course, solar-powered showers.

School groups visit the Ecolodge and learn about the value of birds and trees and how to conserve them.

Scientists are logging the instances of migratory birds and there is an ongoing reforestation project, established five years ago. The coffee is grown in a way that doesn’t pollute the streams, and being grown in shade allows the tropical forest hardwoods to remain and the canopy’s associated wildlife to be protected. Pickers are provided with a decent wage and healthcare benefits.

The project is operated by the Sister

We believe in the ideal of an interdependent, oneworld family whose future depends on justice, friendship, cooperation and understanding

”

into the local economy in San Ramón, a large, mountainous region with 35,000 people scattered over 96 communities, and about 160km north-east of the capital, Managua. Benefits have included full-time jobs at the Ecolodge for up to 14 staff from the local area, many of them long-term – unheard of in such a rural community. The staff also have social

54 | r:travel

susan wyatt

What the judges said...

Best Small Hotel | Communities of San Ramón, Nicaragua (SCSRN), based in Durham, North Carolina and run by a committee of US volunteers.

Lonna Harkrader, now 60, is president and founder and works full-time for the organisation but doesn’t take a salary and pays for her own trips, lasting weeks at a time, to San Ramón. One hundred per cent of the income from tourism and coffee is invested in the local economy.

Ten per cent of eco-tour income is designated for rural water projects and the construction of rural schools.

‘It’s one of the things that makes my life worthwhile,’ says Lonna. ‘My husband and I have had some luck in business – we have been fortunate with the way things have gone financially’. (The company’s environmentally-friendly homes proved

particularly popular, and the couple went on to run them as a rental business.) The ‘Mom and Pop’ organisation, as Lonna terms it, gave the pair the flexibility to pursue their altruistic interests. SCSRN has a values statement which proclaims: ‘We believe in the ideal of an interdependent, one-world family whose future depends on justice, friendship, cooperation and understanding. We believe that the future of this family depends on preserving and restoring the environment. And we believe that people-to-people connections that respect the power and dignity of each individual are a vital part of creating the bonds needed to support this family.’

Both Lonna and her husband had been volunteers in the US Peace Corps – he in Tunisia and his wife in Ethiopia. They both

•

gained so much from it, ‘We learned there that the world is made up of people who have similar goals – they want a better quality of life for their children, and to work.’

Their daughters were 14 and 10 when they went to live in Nicaragua. Today, Carson is 31 and works for GE in the company’s wind energy department.

Lauren is a Brooklyn-based DJ who uses hip hop under the name Chela to make her political protest through music.

Lonna’s goal now is simply to encourage other people to be involved, whether individuals or groups, ‘so they can learn the wonderful things that are to be experienced between people from different cultures.’ www.fincaesperanzaverde.org

jacob fields

sponsored by: Tourism Queensland Queensland is one of the most naturally diverse places on the globe. It’s home to truly spectacular natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef – the only living organism visible from space – and the Daintree rainforest, the oldest on Earth. Queensland has five of Australia’s 14 World Heritage areas, over 450 national parks and a long list of state forests and marine parks.

Add ancient dinosaur trails, breath-taking Aboriginal rock art galleries and unique Australian wildlife, and it’s

easy to understand why protecting and conserving these natural riches is taken so seriously in Queensland.

Sustainable tourism practices are at the heart of the Queensland tourism industry, and government and industry work together to protect these precious natural assets.

Queensland is home to almost half of Australia’s ecocertified operators and ecocertified products. The ECO Certification programme is a world first and is recognised globally as leading the way

in environmental tourism certification programmes and for assisting nature and eco tourism operators in achieving best practice environmental standards.

Queensland presents amazing opportunities for enthusiasts to volunteer on projects as diverse as protecting endangered sea turtles, monitoring the underwater environments of dugongs and protecting the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef. Join the Cape York Turtle Rescue Project, in

55 | r:travel

the northern tip of Queensland and help local Aboriginal rangers and wildlife officers as they tag and measure nesting turtles, remove fishing nets from the beach and collect valuable data.

Tourism Queensland is a statutory authority under the jurisdiction of the Minister for Tourism. Committed to the principles of sustainable tourism, Tourism Queensland is one of the most progressive destination management organisations in Australia. www.experiencequeensland.com

highly Lamai Homestay & Guesthouse, Thailand

commended

Family Thais The first surprising thing about a stay at Jimmy White’s Lamai guesthouse is that by popular consent one of the highlights is searching for scorpions, water beetles and other crunchy insects. The second, and even more surprising thing, is that you are then supposed to eat them.

Foraging with bugs is just one of the authentic experiences that a visitor to this out-of-the-way village of Koh Pet in the dry, very poor and little-visited north east of Thailand can enjoy.

As an interior designer trawling the antiques shops of Wales for discerning clients, Jimmy drove constantly and swore he’d stop one day. Today he has a new life, living with his partner and young daughter in Koh-Pet. They have set up a guesthouse or homestay, increasingly common in Thailand as a way of providing revenue for families taking tourists into their homes for a holiday stay.

Jimmy and Lamai preparing food for their guests on the barbecue

Jimmy and his Thai partner Lamai Ormnock, 30, take up to six guests at a time, who are taken around by the couple to meet, greet and get involved in the community as much as they wish. There are rules, sorry, suggestions, politely expressed at the homestay, which include pointers for saving water, reducing electricity consumption and behaviour codes for visiting the houses of local people. Income from buying goods or services from the villagers has helped them cope when the harvest is poor, for example, without being on a level that radically alters their lifestyles. So, visitors may pay a taxi driver for an outing, or buy a silk basket, or pay a small fee to see a demonstration of a craft such as spinning, weaving, fishing or noodle-making.

Everything and everyone here is dependent on the rice crop, and the weather: three months’ rain – when

56 | r:travel

everyone, including Jimmy and Lamai, is in the fields harvesting – and nine months of drought. Jimmy, now 54, estimates that 70 per cent of adults are forced to find work away from home as a result, only coming home once or twice a year.

‘I wanted our concern to benefit the community but not change them in any way’, says Jimmy, originally from Aberystwyth. ‘When you’re here, you’re part of our family, and the community looks upon you as friends rather than tourists.’

They try to be as environmentally friendly as possible while also giving visitors an experience of the ‘real’ Thailand. Jimmy is adamant that they don’t want to expand the business, but instead hope others will copy them. ‘We know this is successful, I enjoy doing it, and it doesn’t change anything, doesn’t spoil anything.’ www.thailandhomestay.com

Best Small Hotel |

•

highly Papillote Wilderness Retreat, Dominica

commended

Heaven on earth Dominica was late to see tourism as a source of income generation – it is not a sea, sand, sun Caribbean destination. However, its tourism policies have developed over the past decade to promote the island as an ‘ecotourism’ destination. Papillote Wilderness Retreat has played a pioneering role.

Papillote is a small guesthouse, with a public restaurant and local craft shop, set within four acres of botanical gardens. Established 35 years ago, by Dominican Cuthbert Jno Baptiste and his American-born wife Anne Jno Baptiste, it is perched on a steep rain-forested mountain slope. Privately-owned, with its internationally renowned Tropical Gardens set up as a non-profit company (supporting community development through training, education programmes and job creation), it is a major employer in the adjacent village of Trafalgar, and remains a long-standing role model for other local tourism ventures.

In the 1990s it was a key part of Dominica’s ‘eco-inns’ marketing initiative by a group of like-minded guesthouses.

More recently, new projects have studied Papillote’s methods in order to promote spa tourism utilising the natural hot-water resources in the area. Papillote was also

Carver Louisius Desire

an early trainer of tour guides in the area and promoter of responsible tourism practices.

The retreat has become recognised as a flagship of sustainability. In the November edition of the specialist Begonia magazine, Papillote is described as ‘heaven on earth’ for gardeners and naturalists alike. BBC Wildlife magazine called it the sixth best world eco-destination.

An area of rich biodiversity, it is an important repository for endangered and indigenous plant families such as begonias, orchids, gingers, heliconias and bromeliads of the rainforest. It is also an

established nature sanctuary: 35 species of birds and 19 species of butterflies have been sighted on the property.

As a place to stay, it is utterly charming. Dominican culture reflects the heritage of former African slaves, Amerindians and the legacy of French and British colonial influences creating a rich Creole heritage.

Papillote also reflects this background: Creole cooking using locally-grown produce is served in the restaurant; rooms contain locally-made furniture, handmade quilts and art by local artists; the boutique sells exclusively local craft, sculpture and books.

57 | r:travel

The ‘rooms book’ provided to guests contains articles about local history and culture as does the well-stocked library.

Guests and visitors who take the ‘gardens walk’ learn about the folklore and use of indigenous plants and herbs.

They are also encouraged to interact with village life – visiting bars, homes, churches, farms, gardens and attending local festivals.

The vision of the Papillote Tropical Gardens is to become the leading example of gardens tourism in the Caribbean. Some might say it already is. www.papillote.dm

winner Explorandes, Peru

A pleasure for your senses

& soul

What the judges said... ‘The award goes to Explorandes for its work developing homestay accommodation with real volume, and activities, such as kayaking, textiles and culture, including a partnership with a group of 30 families at Llachon on the shore of Lake Titicaca’

58| r:travel

Best in a Mountain Environment |

T

he Explorandes experience goes beyond traditional tours, pictures and souvenirs. As a pioneer of South American adventure travel, it has brought tourism into many rural areas, exploring uncharted rivers and ancient trails.

Recently it has set up a consortium with Llachon Tours, a family-owned enterprise running a lodge complex and kayaking trips on Lake Titicaca.

Travellers will discover the magic of Peru and its people, through close contact with nature and history in its purest essence, enjoying cultural exchanges with local communities while leaving a positive footprint in their path.

Here, first-time traveller Mike Vega from New York shares his experiences of an Explorandes trip in Peru, including a three-day trek and visit to Machu Picchu.

“

Almost everyone back home in New York, told me that I had to take the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, but there are only 500 daily permits and they were fully booked, so I’d arranged to do something a little different – a trek that was more culture-oriented and had the added bonus that I’d be avoiding the usual heavy crowds.

In Cusco, 3,200m above sea level, I met Dave and Julia, a couple from London with whom I was doing my trek, and also my guide. Raul came from a very poor family in a small community in the highlands of the Sacred Valley, near the Salcantay Mountain, which is still worshipped by locals. He started working as a porter when younger, then as a cook’s assistant, then a cook. After saving enough money he was sponsored

by Explorandes to take an English and

guiding course at university. Raul carefully explained the Explorandes’ responsible tourism policy, whereby we are responsible for leaving every trail and site exactly as we found them.

We began our trek towards the Choquechaca valley, walking through amazing Queñua forests, a native tree of shapes I had never seen before. Along the trail we encountered local kids from the various communities who approached us curiously, waving their hands and singing.

I tried chatting with them but my pigeon Spanish was blatantly limited! Overall, I think they understood my smile. They were wearing lovely bright-red ponchos that contrasted beautifully with the bright blue skies and dark mountains. They walked with us until we reached our campsite.

Everything was set up, not only our own tents but one for eating in as well! Our cook gave us a hot cup of coca tea, which is really good for altitude sickness, and a beautiful dinner. Not only the food was amazing, but all the equipment and field staff were excellent too.

The next two days were even more wonderful. More breathtaking views of snowy peaks, or ‘Apus’ known as Inca Gods, and even more amazing archaeological sites, but what I liked best of all was that we stopped in every little town, where locals really welcomed us. The people here are amazing, they have so little but have so much to offer. I learned a lot from them about gratitude and friendship, changing my perception of poverty; we who live in big cities lack so much in spirituality which they, in return, have in abundance.

On our last day we arrived at a viewpoint where we could admire the Sacred Valley of the Incas from side to side. The reason they called it sacred is that it is so productive. Raul told us that during Inca times there were about 4,000 different species of potatoes! Imagine

59 | r:travel

•

that. In the States we have only three; fried, baked and mashed!

I didn’t want the hike to finish. I took many pictures but what I experienced and have kept in my heart is priceless; Raul and his guiding professionalism and insightful knowledge, Faustino and his superb meals, Amansio always cheering us on, and of course, all the locals from the communities that gave us their hospitality.

I will never forget them.

When the hike ended, a minivan waited for us at the bottom of the valley and took us to the rail station where we waited for our train to Machu Picchu. Once in Machu Picchu Pueblo, Raul took us to our hotel, where for the first time in days I enjoyed a really long hot shower before collapsing on my bed.

At dawn the next day, we took a bus up to the ruins. When we got there we were among the first ones to enter the amazing Machu Picchu. What a place! It really is a must for every tourist who comes to South America. We did a two-hour guided tour of the most important archeological sites and after that, I explored this new wonder at my own pace, soaking up the breathtaking landscapes; the vegetation, the birds and, of course, the impressive structures. I was glad I didn’t do the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in the end – being able to enjoy the Andean countryside without touristy crowds was definitely a plus of my adventure.

What I learned from this trip was that Peru is an incredibly diverse country.

Travelling through the Peruvian mountains is a pleasure for your senses and your soul. I encountered amazing landscapes, plenty of history, and cultures that maintain their traditions with honour and pride, people who give foreigners a big smile, express gratitude and will give you a hand if you need it.’ www.explorandes.travel

•| Best in a Mountain Environment highly

commended

Peregrine Adventures

Local Heroes Over 30 years Peregrine Adventures has established itself as the leading trekking operator in Nepal – and one of the keys to its success is its commitment to use only local people as its guides, porters and trek leaders.

That commitment has been tested over the past two years as the unstable political situation in the Himalayan country has halved the numbers of trekkers going there.

However, rather than lay off its 18 fulltime leaders, eight part-timers and a number of office staff in Kathmandu, Peregrine has kept them on, on an annual salary, providing them with a vital income through the difficult times.

That loyalty has paid off. Although politically Nepal is still in turmoil, unrest has not spread to the trekking areas, and bookings are increasing again.

‘Some of the guides have been working

with us for 20 years,’ says Himalayas destination manager Mick Chapman. ”They’ve been loyal to us, so it’s only right to look after them.’

Employing local tour leaders and using family-run lodges is one of the house rules for many responsible tourism operator. Jobs and revenue stay in the local community, helping build a sustainable local economy.

Peregrine’s team throughout its operations in South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe and South East Asia now consists of more than 230 men and women who are passionate about their own country’s history, heritage and natural beauty. They can help visitors get ‘under the skin’ and off the beaten track.

Peregrine was a founding member of the International Porter Protection Group (IPPG) – formed by a group of Himalayan trekking operators to develop a standard

60 | r:travel

of employment practice for porters and trek operators and to protect porters from mistreatment by unprofessional trekking operators or private trekkers. It is now applying the IPPG standards to its operations in other trekking areas. In addition, it is raising funds from its Everest Base Camp & Gokyo Lakes trek to help support the porter shelter in Machhermo in the Gokyo Valley.

Among the ways in which Peregrine reduces the environmental impact of tourism is by helping lodge owners to upgrade their properties with renewable energy sources – including solar showers and using yak dung to heat them. It’s also promoting alternative trekking routes in the Himalayas, along the Inca Trail and to the top of Kilimanjaro to ease the pressure on the well-trodden paths. www.peregrineadventures.com

;' #6%*+0)^

2*161U +/10 1)'4510

*'4'8'4 ;17 #4'X 9*#6'8'4 6*' 9'#6*'4 #0& 9*#6'8'4 ;17 4' &1+0)X ' *#8' 6*' 2'4('%6 51.76+10 (14 '8'4; 5+67#6+10T 6 5 6+/' 61 )'6 9'6T

#010 :75 KI x g EH HN/ *175+0) 2#%-#)' g KTE /')#2+:'. g 7)' G[ g #07#. 9*+6' $#.#0%' g +&'g#0).' .'05'5 #8#+.#$.'

#.. (14 $'56 24+%'

.;/275 gFGN x gNGL HN/ *175+0) 2#%-#)' g KTE /')#2+:'. g G: 126+%#. <11/ g FTI[ g +&'g#0).' .'05 #8#+.#$.'

OFHMTMM

#010 ENE %#/%14&'4 x -'.+6' JN/ *175+0) 2#%-#)' g 11& #..g4170& 8+&'1 2#%-#)' g FTK[ #0& FI: 126+%#. <11/ g 674&; 21.;%#4$10#6' *175+0) g +&' #0).' .'05'5 #8#+.#$.'

OJJHTNN

2'%+#.+56 '37+2/'06 (14 5%7$# &+8+0)X 5014-'..+0)X 574(+0)X 5-++0)X 9#6'4 521465X *+-+0) #0& #.. 9'6 #0& &'/#0&+0) %10&+6+105 999T%#/'4#570&'49#6'4T%1T7 '#& 1((+%' #0& /#+. 14&'4U NEHNHgLEFFKK 10&10 5*19411/U NFNgKLGM EMME 5#.'5u%#/'4#570&'49#6'4T%1T7-

DestinationEnvironment Mountain •| Best in aBest

sponsored by: Blacks

highly Shakti Uttaranchal Tours, India

commended

The High Life One of the tenets of responsible tourism is to takw only photos and leave only footprints. In the newly-created state of Uttaranchal in northern India, even footprints are hard to find.

Shakti Uttaranchal Tours offer a rare opportunity for visitors to discover a ravishingly beautiful remote region where the trails are untrodden, unspoilt and off the beaten track. Here, the air is fresh, the sky is clear and the views of the Himalayas will absolutely take your breath away.

During the course of one of Shakti’s fourday hikes – between villages that have no road access – you’ll see no other foreigners but will instead experience a slice of Indian life in which visitors are welcomed into the homes of local people.

The accommodation is simple but clean and comfortable, and, sitting inside a village house, watching the owner cook chapatis and listening to the laughter of locals sitting around their fires, it’s easy to lose yourself in another world.

As an alternative to the Village Walks, visitors can enjoy the pristine grandeur from Shakti’s luxurious, solar-powered lodge, 360 Leti. Comprising four private cottages

and combining age-old dry-stack stone wall building techniques with innovative contemporary design, set in a stunning wilderness at 8,000 ft, 360 Leti is literally the height of luxury. Here is all the peace and tranquillity a troubled soul could wish for.

This really is designed to be low-volume, low-impact tourism. Gemma Hyde, Shakti’s manager explains: ‘We have limited our Village Walks programme to a maximum of four people at a time, and ensure it is not done voyeuristically. Villagers host tourists in their homes, allowing both groups to learn from a cultural exchange.

Shakti has brought benefits: a large number of local people are employed either directly or indirectly by the company, but guests are discouraged from indulging locals by giving them money directly. A village development fund has been set up which will be used for specific projects in the local area.

‘After three years here,’ says Gemma, ‘we’ve not seen any negative social impact on the local communities who continue to lead their lives as before without being intruded upon.’ www.shaktihimalaya.com

•

62 | r:travel

Blacks is Britain’s leading chain of outdoor stores, catering for outdoor enthusiasts and adventure travellers with an extensive selection of the UK’s best-known brands in technical clothing, footwear, camping gear and seasonal ski-wear.

This year, Blacks and Millets launched a real first: its ‘One Earth’ collection of eco-friendly performance clothing, camping gear and accessories.

Designed to consume less energy – both in manufacture and use – these products enable those who enjoy the outdoors to do so with minimal impact on the environment. The collection cleverly makes use of textiles from renewable sources, such as recycled plastic bottles, while the gadget range harnesses solar energy and wind-up technology to power camping essentials such as torches and radios, helping to reduce carbon emissions and avoid polluting landfill sites with toxic batteries.

With a high-street retail presence of more than 100 outlets nationwide and a dedicated website offering advice and product guides as well as an online storefront, Blacks actively encourages its consumers to participate in outdoor activities through a number of instore and online initiatives. Through its affiliations with VisitScotland and VisitWales, and as official kit supplier to the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, Blacks promotes responsible enjoyment of some of Britain’s highest vantage points, toughest natural challenges and most stunning views. www.blacks.co.uk

winner Eurostar

Neutral territory From today, as it launches new high-speed services from St Pancras, every journey on Eurostar will be carbon neutral. Here’s how it’s done

C

alling yourselves the ‘Tread Lightly Champions’ does rather conjure up visions of green-clad elves flitting about St Pancras station sprinkling fairy dust over everything in sight.

But while it may not be fairy dust that’s cascading throughout Eurostar’s operation, there’s no doubt that – from the top down – the greenies’ influence is spreading.

Since June, 31 employees at every level of the firm, including chief executive Richard Brown, have been tasked with peering into every nook and cranny of Eurostar’s business to find ways to further reduce their carbon footprint. And three new senior posts have just been created to work exclusively on reducing Eurostar’s environmental footprint.

The ten-point Tread Lightly plan has been drawn up to minimise the environmental impact of all Eurostar operations by cutting down on raw materials, sourcing responsibly – from local suppliers in UK, France or Belgium – and recycling more waste. And when you hear that measures include collecting rainwater and cutting up old clothing to use as cleaning rags at the company’s new £400 million service and maintenance depot at Temple Mills in East London, you can be sure this is not just ‘greenwashing’! Such is the attention to detail, that the declared goal is zero disposal to landfill, and 80 per cent of waste being recycled by 2009.

What’s especially remarkable is that Eurostar doesn’t really need to go this far to be an environmental good guy. The CO2 impact of a Eurostar rail journey between London and Paris is already at least ten times less than the equivalent journey by plane. Now, however, the company is committing to reducing emissions by a further 25 per cent by 2012.

And from today, 14 November (Eurostar’s 13th birthday), as services switch to the magnificent new terminal at St Pancras, it will become the world’s first rail service – and the world’s largest mass transport operator – to go ‘carbon neutral’.

Where the company cannot eliminate CO2 emissions, it will invest in offsetting schemes as a last resort to ensure that every traveller’s journey is carbon neutral. Aware that carbon offsetting is still a contentious issue, Eurostar will be working with a number of environmental organisations to deliver what it calls ‘transparent, effective and appropriate’ offsetting schemes.

However, unlike other transport operators who ask passengers to volunteer to offset CO2 emissions at their own expense, Eurostar will bear the full cost of making every journey carbon neutral.

The company is doing all this, it says, because it’s the right thing to do.

Brown, who used to run his local branch of Friends of the Earth while he was at university, says: ‘We don’t have all the

64 | r:travel

What the judges said...

‘The comprehensive ‘Tread Lightly’ programme to reduce Eurostar’s negative environmental impacts across the whole business, on the rails and at the terminals, using biodegradable and recyclable disposables, recycling water and reducing energy consumption, sets a whole-business example which the airlines could follow’

answers, but we do know that a high-speed rail journey is ten times greener than flying – and that Eurostar can be greener still. Our aim is to help passengers tread lightly when they travel. It’s time for the transport industry to do more to tackle climate change, instead of claiming that it makes a minimal contribution to global warming, or simply blaming other sectors.’

•

eurostar.com

Best for Low Carbon Transport and Technology |

Ticket sales and passenger levels are rising at Eurostar among both business and leisure travellers, proving that doing the right thing is also a commercial success.

Now the company wants to extend its influence beyond its own operations, linking up with other rail operators to develop a high-speed European rail network to make it easier for travellers to

use rail wherever possible. Agreements with the seven mainline operators coming into the St Pancras/King’s Cross/Euston/ Marylebone hub in north London, means that passengers in 70 main towns, from St Albans to Sheffield, Milton Keynes to Manchester, will be able to buy through tickets, not only to Paris and Brussels and Lille, but to the Alps, Avignon and

65 | r:travel

Marseilles. Lead-in prices start at £67 return.

So, the cathedral-like new terminal at St Pancras looks set to usher in a glamorous new age of rail travel, and its showpiece champagne bar – the longest in Europe – where drinkers can watch the trains come in as they sip their Moet could even make trainspotting sexy! www.eurostar.com Overpage: The view from Seat 61

•| Best for Low Carbon Transport and Technology

61

The view from Seat

How’s Eurostar doing? Mark Smith, the man behind awardwinning rail travel website, seat61.com praises the power of panache

Everyone remembers their first time, as they say. My first Eurostar journey was as one of their guinea pigs, railway employees given free trips to Paris or Brussels to put staff through their paces, a month or so before public service began. Nabbing one of these golden tickets (Willy Wonka eat your heart out) turned a responsible 29-year-old station manager into a ten-year-old kid at Christmas. And while so many of life’s experiences fail to match the anticipation, this one did not. I gazed at the glass of champagne in my hand, served by a French stewardess in air-conditioned French-designed carriages, then at the ‘Penge East’ station signs gliding smoothly past outside the window, and struggled to accept that this was for real. The Channel Tunnel still smelled of fresh concrete, we emerged to the announcement ‘Welcome to France”, and the whole carriage cheered.

Since then I’ve taken Eurostar many times, usually in my favourite first class seat, seat sixty-one in cars 7, 8 or 11, often bound for far-flung destinations such as Marrakech, the Crimea, or even Tokyo via Vladivostok.

But Eurostar has never lost its charm. Airports and airliners appear dowdy next to Eurostar’s grand architectural terminals, Philippe Starck-designed uniforms and train interiors, and wittily-written publicity. Eurostar has restored a much-needed style (perhaps Eurostar would prefer the French word, panache) to European travel.

Eurostar has put millions of international journeys back on the rails, and has plugged the UK firmly into the European rail network. With over 70 per cent of the London-Paris market, one might almost say that Eurostar has taken one of the busiest air routes in Europe, and replaced it with a train.

Today, Eurostar moves to its new home at the hugely impressive St Pancras International terminal, and cuts its journey time by another 20 minutes. Whole swathes of northern England are set to discover that they too are closer to Paris or Brussels by train than by air, with one simple change at St Pancras. And my next trip on Eurostar? I’ll be aboard today’s first commercial service from St Pancras to Paris, raising a glass to Eurostar’s success, from the comfort of seat sixty-one!

highly

commended

greentomatocars

Hail the hybrid Even the most ethical urbanite is going to need a taxi sooner or later – and when they do, there’s now a conscience-easing greentomato waiting for them.

Greentomatocars is London’s first and biggest environmentally-friendly taxi service, getting its customers from A to B in a fleet of 54 Toyota Prius petrol/battery hybrids that generate half the carbon emissions of the average London black cab.

Founded just three years ago by ex-city lawyers Tom Pakenham and Jonny Goldstone, its client list is already impressive, with The Guardian, BSkyB, News International, Nike, The Lib Dems and, wait for it, Buckingham Palace all calling for a greentomato!

The Hammersmith-based company also ticks another responsible travel box, in that 80 per cent of its drivers and office staff live within three miles of the office.

Neither Tom nor Jonny would call themselves hair-shirted evangelical environmentalists but their philosophy is simple – unless and until the mainstream embraces the low-carb lifestyle, nothing major will change. ‘Normally,’ says Tom

66 | r:travel

‘if you’re interested in something environmentally-friendly you have to spend more money, sacrifice quality, or it’ll have a political – usually left-wing – slant. The mainstream was just not being brought into the thinking. Greentomatocars is a tweak on an existing industry; we offer a good quality service and it doesn’t cost any more.’

Their success has not gone unnoticed and five copycat companies have been launched while other high-polluting rivals have begun to green up their fleets.

Greentomatocars remains at the forefront though, and Tom reports that they’ve just taken delivery of the world’s first plug-in hybrid taxi, a new Toyota Prius with a bigger battery and a plug-in point that can extend fuel consumption from 55 to 125 miles a gallon. They’re also launching in Sydney and Melbourne and in the North West of England.

Why Greentomato? ‘It came up by accident,’ says Tom, ‘and it stuck. But it’s visual, striking and gets people talking about green issues in a fresher way.’ www.greentomatocars.com

Why not consider giving the gift of knowledge this year?

Membership of the Royal Geographical Society with IBG is open to anyone with an interest in all things geographical.

There are many occasions when a Gift Membership is the perfect present

â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whether for a birthday, anniversary or as an original idea at Christmas.

Call 020 7591 3080 to purchase a gift membership (quoting GIFT06/07) or visit www.rgs.org/membership/gift www.rgs.org/JoinUs/ for more information and an order form.

Best Destination Carbon Transport and Technology •| Best for Low

highly

commended

NatureAir

Green ffly outbreak An airline that began in 1990 with two Alaska bush pilots flying in tourists to a handful of destinations in Costa Rica is now celebrating its status as the world’s only 100 per cent carbon neutral airline.

NatureAir, a regional airline flying to 17 destinations including Panama and Nicaragua, runs a carbon neutral programme through conservation of tropical forests in Costa Rica. It is protecting more than 130 hectares by paying local communities to conserve their lands, rather than clear them. In this it not only offsets its own carbon emissions – based on its fuel consumption (using a Kyoto Protocol-approved formula) rather than load factors or

passenger miles – it is also protecting the eco-systems and bio-diversity of the region.

The land is between two national parks – Corcovado and Piedras Blancas – and NatureAir’s goal is to create a biological corridor from one to the other by 2012.

The airline’s ‘responsible flying’ practices also include combining flights with less than 65 per cent load factors, making their aircraft taxi on just one engine – or use a towing vehicle – and combining destinations on one flight, to save up to 40 per cent fuel.

With more than 60 per cent of its destinations having a national park or private reserve located within 20

km of the landing strip, many of NatureAir’s customers are tourists.

And after a university study found that Costa Ricans who speak English earn on average 40 per cent more in wages, NatureAir decided to start NatureKids, an English-learning school enabling local people to acquire more tourism-based jobs that had previously gone to foreigners.

‘We have upheld our commitment that an airline can be fun, reliable and positive in its impact on the destinations to which it flies,’ says chief marketing and environmental officer Alexi Huntley Khajavi. www.natureair.com

sponsored by: Virgin Trains During the past ten years, Virgin Trains has been at the

Trains in November, 21 Voyagers will be retained by Virgin West

forefront of innovation within the rail industry, encouraging

Coast for its North Wales and Birmingham to Scotland routes

many more people to enjoy travel on state-of-the-art and

and the experiment continued. If these can be converted to

environmentally-friendly Pendolino and Voyager trains.

run successfully on biodiesel following completion of the trial we

These have slashed journey times and improved frequencies

can cut CO2 emissions by some 12,000 tonnes each year. This is

throughout the country, and annual journeys on Virgin West

equivalent to removing nearly 8,000 cars from the road.

Coast have increased from 14 million to 19 million. As a

And we are protecting the environment further by recycling

consequence, domestic airline and car travel has been

litter on our trains and at stations and supporting producers in

reduced, cutting associated pollution significantly.

the third world by providing only Fairtrade tea and coffee on

Pendolino tilting trains return power to the National Grid every time they brake – enough to power a town the size of Motherwell for a year – and emit up to 76 per cent less CO2 than aircraft and cars. A Voyager diesel train is currently being run experimentally on a 20 per cent biodiesel blended fuel with a view to reducing CO2 emissions.

With the transfer of the Virgin CrossCountry franchise to Arriva

68 | r:travel

trains and in First Class lounges. www.virgintrains.co.uk

winner Andaman Discoveries, Thailand

Why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cool to be

Thai

Community-based tourism is helping Thai villagers make a living without sacrificing their culture and way of life

What the judges said...

craig Lovell

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Andaman Discoveries recognises that the best custodians of cultural heritage are the people who make it. They have worked with communities to empower them and to create a sense of place, identifying what villagers see as important, and using this information to develop tourist activities and making productive relationships with the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

70 | r:travel

Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage |

T

here’s a phrase among young Thais which sums up a growing desire to ape Western ideals. ‘Go inter’ means, ‘go international’ and it stems from a misconception that anything Western is trendy and cool while anything traditional is backward, outdated and undesirable.

Just a few hours’ drive from the Southern Thailand tourist hotspots of Phuket or Samui, one new operator, Andaman Discoveries, is doing its best to redress the balance.

Here, on the North Andaman coastline, rural villagers are inviting visitors into their homes and lives to experience their cultures and eco-systems in an authentic and ‘respectful’ way.

By interacting with visitors who have a genuine interest in traditional Thai culture and the local way of life, villagers, especially the young, are realising that what they have is ‘cool’ too, and understanding that their development does not have to be at the cost of their cultural heritage.

It is community-based tourism that embraces culture, celebrates difference and encourages exchanges on a mutual level. It also helps conserve the environment of this region which is still feeling the effects of the 2004 tsunami. In Ban Talae Nok, one of the places where Andaman Discoveries operates in, half the village was destroyed during the tsunami and 47 out of 228 people died. Many lost their homes and means of income, and had no savings. After the basic needs of food and shelter were met, discussions led to the subject of livelihood development.

Villagers agreed that community-based tourism would allow them to generate additional income and support the continuity of their traditions and lifestyle.

Andaman Discoveries was able to support the villagers’ efforts. As the flagship project of North Andaman Tsunami Relief, an independent non-profit organisation that has implemented more than 120 projects in 12 tsunami-affected communities, it is helping them to gain real economic benefit from tourism.

Eighty per cent of the income from each trip goes straight back into the community and includes a donation to a community fund which is used to sponsor adult education, a community centre,

environmental education, and daily aerobics, in order that the whole village benefits from the tours into the village, not only those directly involved in the homestay or guiding.

Unlike the tacky cultural shows and watered down Thai cuisine found among the high-rises and exploitative resorts down the coast, the Andaman communities offer what Andaman Discoveries director Kelly May calls ‘meaningful tourism’.

“

Tourists do not just watch people going about their daily lives, they become part of it

which houses would serve as homestays.

Andaman Discoveries does a lot of groundwork even before real tourists are sent into a village. In the early days, it ran a seven-month vocational training scheme with 26 adults from six communities, covering aspects of tourism, guiding, hospitality, small-business management, community development, English and computers. These graduates have returned to their villages to become the leaders of community-led development and tourism. One project that assisted with this rediscovery and renewed appreciation was the writing, publishing and distribution of a book Sense of Place, Sense of Pride, written by 30 villagers from six communities about their villages and traditional way of life.

Andaman Discoveries also provides a Thai phrasebook and homestay pack to visitors and encourages them to learn some of the Thai language with villagers during their stay.

Cultural issues are discussed with each guest and volunteer at the pre-trip briefing before they even go ‘in village’.

Kelly explains: ‘This information was inspired by my own ignorance as a clueless foreigner when I first arrived in Thailand in 2001, unwittingly breaking every cultural rule because I had not taken the time to learn about the country that I was coming to live and work in. In fact, my first year in Bangkok was terrible. The volunteer company provided no information or support and I arrived in a foreign country, completely alone, in a school that had no previous experience of dealing with a young foreigner in a new country.

Andaman Discoveries’ personalised service and extensive support materials are provided because I would hate any one to go through what I did when I arrived in Thailand.’

Visitors to Andaman Discoveries take more than souvenirs back home; they take a sense of what it means to rebuild your life from scratch and an appreciation of the simple things in life. ‘People have told me their time with us has been life-changing and inspirational.’ adds Kelly. ‘That makes it worth it for me.’

”

Andaman’s visitors can go on eco-tours, cultural tours, take part in interactive handicraft workshops and join volunteer placements. They can explore pristine eco-systems: take a traditional long-tail boat through dense mangrove forests; hike through lush rainforests that are alive with the sounds of exotic wildlife; snorkel in clear, emerald-coloured waters teeming with vibrant marine life; or simply do nothing and soak up the sun on a deserted island. At the end of the day, they could find themselves playing football with the locals on the beach, helping the villagers to prepare dinner or soaking up a stunning sunset.

‘By encouraging tourists to participate in simple hands-on activities, like weaving palm leaves into roof material, roasting and shelling cashew nuts and weaving fishing nets, both tourist and villager can interact in a relaxed environment. Tourists do not just watch people going about their daily lives, they become part of it,’ says Kelly. ‘Guests love the fact that they do not see another Westerner during their time with us. It’s a special feeling to be the only Westerner in a village.’

Community-based tourism requires more than a brief workshop or simply picking out

71 | r:travel

•

www.andamandiscoveries.com

An angel spreads her wings Kelly May, director of Andaman Discoveries, earned a much more evocative title after joining the relief effort straight after the Asian tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. Here she recalls how she became known as the ‘Angel of the Andaman’

“I was a self-confessed Bangkok party animal”

‘I had to smile when the Thai press called me that. I was a self-confessed Bangkok party animal, working in publishing, and a well-known face on the social circuit. But as the gravity of the tsunami unfolded, I knew I could not sit back and do nothing. I jumped on a plane and headed south, knowing there must be some way I could contribute.

‘Stepping out of the van, I joined a group of Thai soldiers unloading dry ice onto stretchers. As I grabbed a corner of a stretcher, we passed through a barrier into Wat Yan Yaos temple, the main collection centre for bodies, which I can only describe as hell on Earth – and then some.

The ground was covered with corpses, bloated, disfigured and unrecognisable.

Dry ice was used to keep the corpses cool and created a fog throughout the temple grounds.

‘I became an unofficial coordinator, assisting in all areas, doing anything that was necessary, even helping doctors collect DNA samples from the dead.

‘After witnessing the destruction, it was hard to go back to my previous life in Bangkok and move on, pretending every

sponsored by:

Jamaica Tourist Board The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), founded in 1955, is Jamaica’s national tourism agency and is headquartered in the capital city of Kingston. The Board is responsible for the worldwide marketing and promotion of the uniqueness and diversity of destination JAMAICA. The JTB’s mandate has been to promote Jamaica as a preferred travel destination; identify new and emerging consumer groups; cultivate new relationships with travel partners and disseminate timely and useful marketing information to its offices and travel partners worldwide.

The JTB is the most preferred point of

contact for persons travelling to Jamaica.

Throughout the years, the JTB has been recognised for its exceptional leadership and outstanding service, with accolades from industry and trade partners both regionally and internationally.

All of JTB’s programmes are based on the policies espoused in a ten-year Masterplan for Sustainable Tourism Development. One of the pillars of this document is the concept of responsible tourism, and the JTB encourages every effort, whether domestic or international to get more tourism entities to function in a responsible fashion. Many of our own hotels and attractions have been recognized for their efforts in this regard.

The JTB is proud to sponsor the Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage category in the 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards. www.visitjamaica.com

72 | r:travel

thing was back to normal. I knew that down South, whole lives had to be rebuilt.

‘My work became meaningless, the parties boring, and Bangkok became a shallow and empty place. A change of job proved a distraction for a while, but eventually I decided to resign and become a volunteer. A close friend, Bodhi Garrett, had founded North Andaman Tsunami Relief, a grass-roots development agency working closely with villagers on economic recovery and he offered me a job. In August 2006 I took over the community-based tourism project which was in its early stages. Several villages had expressed an interest in exploring the potential of tourism, and some had been involved in a three-day workshop.

It was from this that Andaman Discoveries emerged, as a long-term vehicle for sustainable development projects that grew out of tsunami relief.

‘I would love to stay in Thailand and carry on assisting the villagers. But I am also concerned that when funding runs out, I will be left with nothing but memories.

I have no security, financial or otherwise and I just cannot go on like this indefinitely.’

Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage | highly

commended

Intrepid Travel

Part of the Community Cultural awareness is one of the guiding principles of responsible tourism and Intrepid Travel is one of the increasing number of tour operators taking this to heart.

Intrepid’s tour groups remain small, averaging just ten travellers, meaning they never dominate the small communities they visit, and often stay as guests of a local family.

In Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, Intrepid visits a hilltribe museum run by the local community; in Korcula, Croatia, groups visit a farm restaurant where everything served is grown locally and made traditionally; in Turkey, travellers are taken to buy rugs directly from the maker or retailers, who give fair payments to local artisans; and in Fiji, Intrepid visitors are given a traditional ‘sevu sevu’ welcome and taught Fijian singing and dancing.

The impact is not lost on visitors.

‘In Kerala, a rice farmer called Thomas shared his house with us and his mother cooked one of the most delicious meals we had,’ says Gillian Heyworth, who visited India

with Intrepid. ‘He is trying to preserve the Kerala work-songs that the rice workers used to sing and hand down from generation to generation. We listened to the women singing them – they were amazing.’

The company now recruits around 85 per cent of its tour leaders from local communities, ensuring that visitors gain real insight into everyday lives. Over the past two years it has set up several offshore branches, hiring more local staff and building better community relationships.

Intrepid Indochina sponsors the Ba Vi Bike Ride in Hanoi, which raised money for KOTO – a programme for young people in Vietnam’s capital.

In Phnom Penh in Cambodia, a young man called Rahn regularly drove Intrepid groups, but when he decided to study to become a guide, he was unable to work. So Intrepid arranged for groups to enjoy meals at his house for a small fee.

This provided great local interaction for travellers and a regular income for Rahn’s family. www.intrepidtravel.com

73 | r:travel

•

•| Best for Conservation of Cultural Heritage highly

commended

Go Native America, USA

Plains Speaking If you want to discover North America’s authentic Indian Country, you have to Go Native.

Go Native America is a tour operator running trips within native American communities, and gives visitors the chance to meet descendants of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and other legendary leaders.

Ride an Appaloosa Pony across the rolling plains, soak up the South Dakotan sunshine and travel back in time to the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn with narrator Serle Chapman – a man who’s earned the praise of Nelson Mandela and who often reduces visitors to tears with his passionate account of his people’s history.

Serle is a legend in guiding circles – but he’s not the only one keeping his culture alive. Go Native hires only indigenous guides and trains them through its Native Guides Training Programme. All fees for local guides are well above average rates – 224 per cent higher – and are paid direct to the guides themselves.

‘We’re often asked by novice tour members why we don’t just include

all guiding fees as a package,’ says Go Native director Sarah Chapman.

‘But if someone takes a bargain, someone has to give a bargain.

Native America is a collection of some of the most poverty-stricken areas of the US, so our remit isn’t in saving dollars for comparatively very rich travellers, it is providing opportunities for native people to prosper.’

A publishing venture gives native writers the opportunity to share their stories in their own tribal style.

In 2006, local authors notched up US$4,000 in book sales.

On the commercial side, Indigenous Beadwork, a traditional beadwork company working on modern denim shirts, is now up and running, funded through visitor donations. Similar funding has allowed Native American Jon Beartusk to sustain an ongoing income through ‘Solar Art’ – the burning of images onto wood by reflecting the sun through a magnifying glass. www.gonativeamerica.com

74 | r:travel

Paradise Bay Resort & Spa Grenada, the spice of the Caribbean, has friendly people and gorgeous nature. Offers 9 Caribbean villas on 8 acres in a huge natural park with great ocean & beach views. Gourmet and local cuisine, (beach) massage, a small gym. No TV/noise.

Relax...in a hammock or ocean canoes. Watch whales/dolphins, do a Catamaran trip, scuba diving, island tour, hikes/walks, horseback riding for an affordable Super Inclusive price!

Revive your senses • Get away from it all!

Sustainable practices

CARBON FREE VACATION: emissions caused by flights & stays are compensated by planting trees in Ethiopia.

First resort with utility-grade windmill; solar lights/heaters, energy saving equipment, organic amenities & produce.

Community Support and education programs 473-405-8888 | paradisebay@spiceisle.com www.paradisebayresort.net

WALKING, TREKKING & WILDERNESS

ADVENTURES WORLDWIDE From summiting Himalayan peaks to trekking the Inca Trail, Peregrine offers the very best in sustainable adventure travel with over 140 treks, climbs, hikes, walks and expeditions across all six continents.

2008-2009

WALking, tr ekking & WiLdern eSS

30 years of operation • small groups professional leaders & local guides • fully portered members of the international porter protection group trek packs included • low-impact adventures

Short listed for the Best in a Mountain Environment award.

For the 08-09 brochure, more information or to book contact us SM AL L GROUP

ADV ENT URE

S

Himalaya, India ,

China, Centr al and South East Asia, Africa Middle East, Latin Amer , Europe, ica, Antarctica and the High Arctic.

The Spirit of

0844 736 0170

Adventure

www.peregrineadventures.co.uk/geographical

winner Grootbos Nature Reserve, South Africa

Saying it with fflora

This South African nature reserve is using tourism to drive conservation work and provide a sustainable future for local communities They don’t call this a biodiversity hotspot for nothing. Situated less than two hours from Cape Town and overlooking the spectacular Walker Bay, Grootbos is a 1,750-hectare private nature reserve and five-star eco-tourism business centred on the remarkable terrestrial and marine biodiversity. For more than a decade, under its owners the Lutzeyer brothers, Michael and Tertius, Grootbos has promoted its beauty, interpreted its intricate stories, researched its many secrets and developed a host of projects aimed at conserving this exceptional natural region and assisting its poor and marginalised communities. It has fused conservation with human development – all in a relaxing environment that welcomes careful tourists (including Brad Pitt!).

A walk, horse ride or 4x4 drive through the reserve offers you an introduction to nature’s more subtle nuances. This is the largest diversity of fynbos plants in the world. It is also the most documented reserve in South Africa. They have found 741 species on the

First, a quick nature lesson...

The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the world’s six floral kingdoms – and the smallest – occupying an area of 90,000 square kilometres, which makes it about the size of Portugal.

In 2004, UNESCO, not an organisation given to puffed-up hype, put it on the World Heritage List, declaring the kingdom to be of ‘outstanding universal significance to humanity’, and describing it as ‘one of the richest areas for plants in the world’.

Fynbos (which means ‘fine bush’ in Afrikaans) is the name given to the prevailing natural vegetation unique to the Cape Floral Kingdom. Its biodiversity is greater than the tropical rainforest. And of the 9,000 species of plant found here, around 6,200 are unique to the region.

76 | r:travel

Best for Conservation of Endangered Species |

•

What the judges said...

‘We gave the award to Grootbos for conserving 1750 acres of the Cape’s threatened fynbos by using five hectares for tourism development and for working to engage local communities through football, employment and micro-enterprise opportunities’

reserve, of which 98 are on the Red Data endangered list and five are new to science.

Bushy-bearded conservationist David Bellamy calls Grootbos: ‘The best example of conservation of biodiversity I have ever seen’, while The Eden Project in Cornwall has adopted it as a major partner in its quest to develop its domes’ South African plants.

Grootbos is a bit of phoenix. It has been practically rebuilt and replanted after a devastating fire swept through the reserve in February 2006. The fire damaged the Garden Lodge main building and totally destroyed the newly-constructed Forest Lodge and three of its 11 suites. It also burned the entire 1,700 hectare reserve.

Yet, amazingly, the fire wasn’t the end of the story.

Fire is a necessary stage in the life cycle of almost all fynbos plants; many of the seeds germinate only after the intense heat of a fire. Controlled burns are part of the routine. Awful as it was, the 2006 blaze resulted in a botanical bonanza, with 72 species new to Grootbos being found. They have also recently discovered a new

orchid. Moreover, the owners took the opportunity to clear the area of invasive non-indigenous vegetation, while rebuilding the Forest Lodge and its suites within six months to welcome invasive non-indigenous humans.

For visitors, Grootbos offers botanical drives up the mountain, walks with beautiful views, horse riding, whale watching (June to November), mountain biking, bird watching, swimming and good food. It also does trips to the beach, to ancient caves and to nearby Gansbaai for great white shark-spotting. Visitors are well looked after, though the staff are as interested in telling you about the marine life in the bay and the varieties of flora in the surrounding fynbos as they are about the specials on the five-course dinner menu.

Regular visitor Margi Biggs says: ‘The best thing about staying at Grootbos is the understated quality of the whole experience. I love the quiet, the views and the sense of belonging in this environment. It’s like visiting long-standing friends who open their home to you.’

Sean Privett, the conservation director, explains the

Grootbos is teaching local people to grow and conserve the unique fynbos species

www.grootbos.com www.greenfutures.co.za

77 | r:travel

highly

Biosphere Expeditions

Dances with wolves

Biosphere volunteers have helped to prevent a cull of wolves

Imagine a break where you did more than experience a new place and a new culture – one where your actual presence contributed to saving the lives of endangered animals.

That’s the potential reward of hooking up with Biosphere Expeditions. This not-for-profit organisation, founded in 1999 by Dr Matthias Hammer, runs wildlife conservation expeditions. Its ‘trips’ are not tours, photographic safaris or excursions. They are genuine expeditions, with true biological conservation content. Participants know they are doing something really worthwhile, as well as having a unique experience.

Open to everyone, there are no special skills or fitness levels required to join, and there are no age limits. You can participate from anything from two weeks to several months. The cost starts at around £1,000 (excluding flights). Two-thirds of that is guaranteed to go locally, direct into the conservation project.

Biosphere works with local scientists and people from the host country; teams are small and an expedition leader from the organisation is on hand, too.

sponsored by: Sri Lanka Tourism Sri Lanka’s tourism product is based on nature, so we need to ensure that partners and visitors promote sustainable tourism. Sri Lanka Tourism has decided to sponsor this category as it is in keeping with our traditions of thousands of years. Sri Lanka established its first national park in 245 BC and since then has been preserving the environment for future generations.

Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park has one of the highest densities of leopards in the world

78 | r:travel

Illustrations: shutterstock.co.uk

philosophy that underscores Grootbos’ success: ‘Our environmental work has been part of the foundations of the business, not an add-on for marketing reasons. The Lutzeyer family has always been totally committed to environmental and social development.’

Integral to that is the Green Futures programme, funded through the Grootbos Foundation. The Green Futures Horticulture and Life Skills College was established in 2003 and provides training in horticulture, conservation, ecotourism, literacy, first aid, and business, to unemployed people from local communities. The scheme is creating the next generation of indigenous gardeners. Over the past four years Green Futures has placed 48 young graduates into sustainable nature-based careers. It is the only accredited gardening school in South Africa and its model is now being replicated in Khayelitsha township and Somerset West, with the support of the City of Cape Town.

Within the local community Grootbos also started a soccer project where children collect rubbish for credits with which they can obtain soccer gear which is sponsored. They have three teams who play. Grootbos has built 48 showers for the kids who otherwise would not have access to such facilities. There is now also a sewing school which makes clothes for children, and an early learning centre.

Says Sean Privett: ‘Guests are encouraged to experience the various projects through guided tours which incorporate the conservation work, tours

by Green Futures graduates to the Green Futures College and soccer/township tours. This adds to the their experience and makes them feel that they are not only having a fantastic five-star holiday but also helping to make a real difference to people and the environment.’

commended

Best for Conservation of Endangered Species |

•

highly Earth, Sea & Sky/Ionian Eco

commended

Villagers/Nature World Travel

Happy together It might seem hard to believe that a layman can make a difference in a scientific project, but as Biosphere’s director Kathy Wilden explains: ‘When volunteers are properly trained they are just as useful as expert scientists in gathering the types of data we are interested in.

‘We carefully select long-term projects and make them feasible by providing the workforce and funding. And we don’t just go there once, we keep going back until the work is done, even if it takes years.’

Among Biosphere’s recent achievements has been preventing a cull of 50 wolves in the Carpathian mountains on the strength of data collected by their teams of volunteers. In Peru, a macaw nest poacher for the illegal pet trade has literally turned gamekeeper – and now works for Biosphere as a local guide and keen conservationist.

Current projects include coral reef surveying in Honduras, whale studies in the Azores, and Arabian leopard studies in Oman.

Wilden adds: ‘The people who join our expeditions are those who care enough to become actively involved, those who want to come home and tell their friends not just what they saw, but also what they have done about it.’ www.biosphere-expeditions.org

Tourists sunbathing on a beach used by nesting loggerhead turtles sounds like a recipe for eco-disaster.

That this combination exists in harmony on one Greek beach – and that the turtles are thriving – is a tribute to the efforts of a determined conservationist to minimise the effects of tourism on the environment.

Gerakas Beach, the one surviving relatively unspoilt nesting beach in Laganas Bay, in the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, is being safeguarded by Earth, Sea & Sky, a non-profit arm of Ionian Eco Villagers, an eco-friendly tour operator set up by Zakynthian Yannis Vardakastanis.

The firm accommodates a maximum of 50 people at Gerakas in small villas and apartments, and helps limit the numbers of visitors, umbrellas and sunbeds on the beach. By day, volunteers patrol, advising visitors on eco-protocol (such as removing plastic bags which might be mistaken for jellyfish and eaten by the turtles) and at night, wardens prevent access and enforce light and noise pollution curbs.

Pedaloes, canoes and boating activities are banned from nearby Gerakas Cape and motorised water sports are banned from the bay.

The measures are working: the decline in the number of nesting turtles has been stabilised and in 2007 the number of nests on Gerakas beach actually increased for the first time.

Another eco-friendly offshoot, Nature World Travel, employs native Ionians to run non-intrusive wildlife excursions, accompanied by volunteers from

Archelon, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece.

‘Many turtle-spotting tours are indiscriminate and pursue turtles relentlessly,’ says Vardakastanis. ‘Frequently we see turtles surrounded by so many boats that they are unable to get away. Turtles are notoriously sensitive creatures, easily stressed, and often dive under boats to try and escape. This can lead to propeller injuries, which can be fatal.

‘We do not chase turtles, we do not make noise to attract their attention, nor do we swim with them. We merely observe them in their natural habitat.

‘Our ethos is to attract customers who are already sensitive to nature and conservation. The type of guests we bring here appreciate the fact that Gerakas is unspoilt – and 80 per cent return year after year.’ www.earthseasky.org www.natureworldtravel.com

Sri Lanka is a biological heaven...

• 17 national parks offering elephants, leopards and bears. Bird watching is considered among the best in the world, and Yala has one of the highest density of leopards in the world.

• Rainforests such as Sinharaja offer flora and fauna which scientists from around the world come to study. Sinharaja is well known for its birds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs and mushrooms.

• 2,000-metre high mountains offer a varied landscape. More than 100 waterfalls add colour and movement to the scenery in the central hills, and the tallest is five times the height of Niagara Falls.

• Underwater life, including whales, coral reefs and wreck diving which allows you to see an equal variety under water as we have on land.

79 | r:travel

There are many interesting projects in Sri Lanka. Visit www.srilankatourism.org.uk

winner Borana, Kenya

What the judges said:

Meanwhile,

back at the ranch

‘Borana has made a sustainable contribution to the alleviation of poverty through generating employment, improving school facilities, funding a mobile clinic reaching thousands of people and for innovative initiatives like “Hide and Sheep” adding value to local products for the benefit of the economically poor.’

D

awn on Borana is seldom short of spectacular. As the sun rises, giraffe browse the acacia trees with a delicacy and poise that belies their astonishing size. Lilac-breasted rollers swoop from euphorbia to cabbage tree and Pattas monkeys forage in the long grass. To the north, a dark forest harbours elephants, caracal and Verreaux eagle owls. Overseeing all is Mount Kenya, the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, its icy peaks sharp in the clear morning sun.

For David Lesham, 26, the view is routine.

He was born here but still he values it highly – indeed, has devoted his life to sharing it with others.

‘I teach people about animal behaviour, how to track animals and the medicinal properties of plants. I learned all this when I was very young, walking to school or out herding,’ says Lesham, in perfect English. To do his training as a safari guide, he had to learn it all again in English so that he could write the exams and explain things to visitors at Michael and Nicky Dyer’s Borana Lodge, a 32,000-acre working ranch within the Laikipia-Samburu ecosystem, one of Kenya’s most important outside the national parks and reserves.

The cottages where guests sleep overlook a watering hole that is visited by lions and leopards, buffalos and elephants.

Visitors eat spectacular meals made with ingredients from the local area: Borana

80 | r:travel

Best for Poverty Reduction |

beef and Nanyuki vegetables cooked

by Maasai chefs and served by Meru waiters. Staying at Borana is wonderful for the beauty, the variety and the high concentration of animals, but adding to the experience is the fact that a stay will benefit the local community both indirectly and directly.

Lesham is living proof of the Borana philosophy of sharing its wealth with the communities that surround it. Tourism in Laikipia is crucial to the local economy and brings much-needed investment to the area; traditional ranching and pastoralist herding have never been able to achieve big earnings.

‘It is very good to see people coming from overseas and wanting to see our culture. This was slowly eroding, but tourism means we will hold onto it because there are people making a living out of it,’ says Lesham.

‘Tourists pay a fee to come here,’ he says with a nonchalant sweep of his hand that encompasses four species in the flash of an eye – hyrax, sunbird, augur buzzard and ground squirrel. ‘And that money is spent on local schools or medical clinics.’ Borana has recently set up a mobile clinic carrying out medical treatment, vaccination programmes, antenatal care and HIV-awareness, at a monthly cost of £800.

It also operates an ancillary enterprise called Hide and Sheep which buys hides from local farmers and employs physically

disabled people to turn them into slippers, boots, cushions and rugs for sale locally – and internationally.

Borana takes its social responsibility very seriously. Canon recently launched its new camera on the ranch having flown in photographers from around the world to marvel at the new EOS in surroundings that offer more photographs per square foot than almost anywhere in the world. Of course they were paying for the privilege, but more importantly for the area, Borana had obliged Canon to build three classrooms for local schools. Borana gives 15 scholarships a year to the best students at the schools.

Lesham won a scholarship to secondary school and college from the Catholic mission in his nearby hometown of Doldol but his is a very special case and only one of his classmates has completed college and found a job. Borana’s scholarships allow children to go on to secondary school and college but more importantly they offer the prospect of employment at the end. The ranch and lodge buy produce locally and employ about 200 people but Borana also actively looks for people it can train for specific jobs.

‘If I can find people with potential, Michael likes to train them up. Here at the lodge we have two guys we are training on the job to become guides. They are pastoralists from Chumvi [a local village]; already their English is improving and they

81 | r:travel

•

have learned to drive. This year Borana will sponsor them to do their bronze guiding badge. It is very encouraging.’

Others, too, have been trained as managers, guides, cooks or drivers before going on to work at lodges owned by the local communities like neighbouring Tassia, which was set up with assistance and funding from Borana but is wholly independent. The knock-on effect is notoriously hard to quantify but the lodges in Laikipia, of which Borana was one of the pioneers, bring money in the form of conservation fees and dollars spent by tourists in the local shops. But there is much more to it than that. Now there is an alternative to going to the city or ekeing an existence out of pastoralism in the fragile environment of Northern Kenya.

People like David Lesham – born into a pastoralist community but now the holder of a diploma in hotel management – can give a huge amount to their communities if given a chance of finding employment at places such as Borana.

‘I would like to help the area,’ says Lesham, ‘maybe by starting an organisation for the conservation of endangered species around Laikipia or maybe by starting a small lodge. Some people have to walk six hours to hospital or 20 miles to school. I would like to be involved in community development projects, bringing services closer to the people.’ www.borana.co.ke

sponsored by:

Starwood Hotels & Resorts For the past 11 years Starwood has worked with UNICEF, raising money for child immunisation projects through the unique Check Out For Children programme, contributing to poverty reduction among communities. Since 1995, Starwood’s guests and associates have raised over US$16 million, through the voluntary addition of $1 or its equivalent in local currency to the guest’s bill as they check out of their hotel. This has enabled UNICEF to immunise more than 882,000 children around the world against the six major, potentially fatal childhood diseases: polio, measles, tetanus, tuberculosis, whooping cough and diphtheria.

In addition, the partnership, which now operates in hotels in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, has played a considerable role in raising the awareness of UNICEF’s work and the needs of vulnerable children to thousands of hotel guests from all over the world.

Check Out For Children was pioneered

by Robert Scott, SVP General Counsel for Starwood EAME, who was motivated by the belief that his company should find a way to put something back into the communities in which it operates and approached UNICEF with the idea of helping some of the world’s most vulnerable children through the Check Out for Children programme, which was launched in 1995.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 850 properties in more than 95 countries, with the following brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, Sheraton®, Westin®, Four Points® by Sheraton, W®, Le Méridien® and the recently announced aloftSM and ELEMENTSM Hotels. www.starwoodhotels.com www.unicef.org/corporate_partners/ index_25074.html

highly

commended

communitychallenge

Meeting the

challenge of poverty

communitychallenge

Anyone thinking of embarking on one of Simon Albert’s community challenges is given a warning: this experience could change your life forever.

Over the past seven years, expedition management company Charity Challenge, which he co-founded, has helped thousands of people to achieve personal goals such as trekking in the Andes or climbing Kilimanjaro, and, in the process, raise more than £15 million pounds for their chosen charities.

But since 2004 the company has had a new goal of its own.

Following the Asian tsunami, the firm developed its communitychallenge programme, aimed at the corporate market, in partnership with the charity Habitat for Humanity (HFH), to help families in Sri Lanka build new homes to replace those swept away in the disaster.

Within 16 weeks, the first teams of volunteers, many from a single company, were on site helping families to dig foundations, collect water, mix cement, plaster walls, lay roof tiles and help communities start to rebuild their lives.

In the following two years, around 1,500 communitychallenge participants have

82 | r:travel

worked on hundreds of houses, in four countries, across three continents, and raised more than £1 million to help HFH fight poverty housing.

‘On one project in South Africa,’ says Simon Albert, ‘we have worked with 18 families, where more than 100 children have lost their parents to AIDS. More than 25 per cent of the houses in the village of KwaXimba were built with the help of communitychallenge volunteers.’

As well as working alongside local teams, each project ensures there’s a responsible side to its tourism aspects, staying in locally-owned hotels, visiting local restaurants, sharing local traditions of music and dance, employing local guides and buying souvenirs from local producers.

The number of projects is set to expand next year, as their impact snowballs.

Meanwhile, volunteers who’ve taken part have been inspired to continue their involvement long after their initial trips, raising further funds for HFH and recruiting more teams.

Saatchi and Saatchi are now on its third visit in three years. And after one worker from Lloyds TSB went on an open trip, she told her story to her in-house magazine and inspired many more staff to follow in her footsteps.

‘These trips do change people’s lives,’ says Simon Albert. ‘As well as helping communities build for their own futures, the scheme is fuelling the move towards greater corporate social responsibility.

The enthusiasm of the returning volunteers wanting to share their incredible experiences is infectious. They can become powerful advocates both for their company and the cause.’ www.charitychallenge.com

Best for Poverty Reduction |

•

highly Guludo Beach Lodge, Mozambique

commended

Finding

Nema…

The arrogance of youth and an unquenchable belief that no hurdle was big enough to stop them have fuelled a young couple’s dream to use tourism to alleviate poverty in one of the world’s poorest areas.

Five years ago Amy Carter, now 27 and her partner Neal Allcock, 29, founded Bespoke Experience, and built the luxury Guludo Beach Lodge, overlooking the Indian Ocean in the Quirimbas National Park in northern Mozambique.

The lodge offers its 18 guests an intimate insight into African village life, combined with total relaxation and friendly luxury. The snorkelling and scuba diving is spectacular.

Guludo was built almost exclusively from local bio-degradable materials, by a 100-per-cent local workforce. Furniture was made on site by local carpenters, the uniforms tailored in the local village.

More than 80 per cent of all the lodge’s expenditure, from construction to operation, is within a five-kilometre radius.

All 56 staff are trained on site, on the job.

Two years ago the couple launched a charitable arm, the Nema Foundation to fund health and education projects in the area, with five per cent of all Bespoke revenue going directly to Nema. Among its achievements are providing access to clean water for 10,000 people by the end of this year and training more than 60 community health workers to run a malaria prevention scheme.

For Amy, this is the fulfillment of a dream that began on a gap year in rural Kenya, teaching in a primary school.

‘I remember sitting in the classroom thinking how many incredible opportunities were in front of me compared to those children who would have to struggle to find the funds just to go to secondary school. It occurred to me that tourism could be the key to helping communities work their way out of poverty. I met Neal at university; we would spend endless evenings dreaming of ways we could make the idea work, and when I graduated we decided to see if it could be made a reality.

‘Although neither of us had been to Mozambique, we decided it was the perfect location – incredible tourism

83 | r:travel

potential next to extreme poverty. When we stepped onto Guludo’s breath-taking beach we knew the search was over and that night, under a full moon and sitting on coconut logs, we had a meeting with the Guludo community to talk about our idea of a lodge. From that first day our partnership with the locals was sealed.

‘Training the first front-of-house staff took an immense amount of time and hard work. However, it paid off and today you can have a long chat with the barman who will tell tales of when the “lions of the village” (people who turned into lions) met the “lions of the bush” (real ones).’ www.guludo.com

winner Gecko’s Adventures

Are we having fun yet?

The winner and three highly commended tour operators in this category all had impeccable responsible travel credentials – so much so that the judges found it hard to separate them.

But a good holiday is not just about being responsible – we know these guys are good, but are they fun to hang out with?

Q&A with…

Name: Pete Rawley Job : Gecko’s Brand Manager - Global

G

ecko’s Grassroots Adventures runs 181 trips to 150 countries, aimed especially at younger travellers, between 20-40 years old, in small groups of nine to 15. The company’s core philosophy is to use only local leaders, and to support the local economy by staying in locally-owned lodgings and travel by local transport. All clients get a copy of Gecko’s top ten tips for travelling responsibly. The company has recently launched the Gecko’s Community Trust which funds local community projects and initiatives that advance education and employment within the tourism and hospitality industry.

Age: 39 Location: Melbourne, Australia hat’s the most inspiring trip you’ve been on W with Gecko’s?

My first visit to Africa. I went with a lot of preconceived ideas and a strong focus on wildlife. I walked away with an amazing understanding of the various tribal groups, a volatile history, and sense of hope for many. I‘ve been back eight times since and will return again and again.

bet for the ‘adventurously cautious’. It’s a great destination, with good infrastructure and the adventure travel options there are a great introduction to experiencing new cultures.

What’s the weirdest request you’ve ever had from a customer?

A client travelling to Antarctica asked if she could take her cat!

What’s the most extreme trip you offer?

Any taxi ride around Cairo? One of our more adventurous trips would be Cairo to Casablanca. It’s a 34-day trip and includes Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. We’ve recently started the trip to Everest Base Camp too – that one’s a ripper!

And the soft option for a wussy traveller?

Many of the trips into Thailand are a safe

84 | r:travel

What’s the most ridiculous or dangerous thing you’ve had to do in the line of duty?

Played football against our tour leaders in Cambodia. After a quick run down of the rules, as I had never played, I was sent out in 37 degree heat while nursing a ‘slight headache’ from the previous night’s awards presentation. Several of the leaders

Best Tour Operator | saw it as a great opportunity to teach me all about pain. They ran me up and down the pitch until I was near-exhausted, then popped me in goal to be humiliated in a five-goal avalanche.

What’s the worst example of irresponsible tourism you’ve come across – and were you able to do anything about it?

Operators that have an ‘it’s not my problem’ attitude to the increasing issue of child sex and tourism within South East Asia (or any country for that matter).

Gecko’s has worked very hard with our local operators, the communities we visit and our local leaders to make sure that the education process against this abhorrent practice continues.

What’s the hardest ‘house rule’ (principle of responsible tourism) to keep?

The company philosophy of ‘local leaders only’. While the ethos of this stand is without question, it does at times throw up various challenges. Things such as higher wage payments, cultural differences with clients, extensive training, English language development and long-term career opportunities for staff are issues that companies who choose western leaders do not face, or at best to a far lesser degree.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you give to customers?

You are a guest of the countries you are lucky enough to visit. Do your research to find out about local customs and cultures and endeavour to be respectful of these.

PS, Long drop toilets are a skill that takes practice.

What Gecko achievement are you most proud of over the past couple of years?

The employment and development of our local leaders. To be involved in helping develop people through our system – from first time leader to small business owner – is a great thing to be a part of.

Who’s the most famous client you’ve had – and what was he/she/they like?

Don’t think Gecko’s has had anyone of ‘celebrity’ status. If we did they must have been the type of client that would say, ‘it’s about enjoying and interacting with the group and destination and not me, me, me!’

If you could take anyone on one of your trips, who would it be, what would you show them, and why?

I would love to take my parents on one of our trips actually, most likely an African safari.

They have never been outside Australia and I would love to share that experience with them at least once in my life.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your company?

Melissa Bennett, travel agent, Australia: ‘I’m glad I booked a lot of Gecko’s trips and got to meet you’ (We got married in February this year).

And what’s the worst – and was it justified!?

Melissa Rawley, travel agent, Australia: ‘You bastard – I should have booked Intrepid!!’

(After getting home late from a night out at the pub with mates).

What do your staff moan about most?

The speed of change and implementation of new ideas. We have an extremely

•

energetic and passionate team and they always have fantastic ideas on how to improve the business. But the process to implement in a correct, ethical, safe and professional manner can, at times, take longer than many of us would prefer.

If you ruled the world of tourism what would be your first act?

Continue to raise the bar on standards and guidelines for companies within our sector to do more for the long term sustainability of our business and planet.

Finally, where would you rather be right now?

Africa. I have an obsession with the continent. Which reminds me – around the time people are reading this I will have just completed a gorilla trek in Rwanda, game park viewing in the Maasai Mara and Serengeti, met my sponsor children in Kenya and will have my feet up in Zanzibar! www.geckosadventures.com

What the judges said: ‘The tour operator category was especially difficult to judge as so many tour companies now publish comprehensive responsible travel policies. Gecko’s stood out because it has a core policy of employing only local tour leaders, ensuring that the local community benefits financially from its holidays, and for its commitment to channelling revenue directly into conserving wilderness and heritage.’

sponsored by: The Adventure Company Our Commitment & Style of Travel At The Adventure Company we have always recognised that we are accountable for the way we affect the local community and environment in the areas in which we operate. Over recent years we have taken fundamental steps to ensure that Responsible Travel is at the heart of all aspects of our business. Just by travelling with us, you will take a step in the right direction. Our style of travel takes specific account of the environment through which you’re travelling and all our trips feature key elements that contribute

directly to the host country’s local infrastructure, skills base and economy.

Our Responsible Travel Code By following a simple Responsible Travellers Code, you can make a positive difference and limit the negative impacts on the places you’re journeying through. Everyone who travels with us will automatically receive a copy of our Responsible Travel leaflet.

The Adventure Company Foundation We have set up our own foundation to administer funds donated by our

85 | r:travel

passengers. A small donation of £1 per booking will be put to good use on one of our carefully selected projects. These are small grass-roots initiatives that really make a difference such as building houses in Sri Lanka, a community centre in Nepal and equipping schools in Morocco and Ecuador.

•| Best Tour Operator highly

commended

Imaginative Traveller

E

Fair’s fair: here’s how the three highly commended tour operators got on with the same set of questions

stablished in 1991, Q&A with...

Imaginative Traveller is one of the world’s leading Name: Jim O’Brien operators of small group adventure tours. Besides Age: 32 a commitment to responsible travel, in each major destination Position: Head of Operations, Imaginative Traveller they aim to support a project with donations from travellers.

These include expanding Location: Suffolk, UK accommodation at Chiang Mai Orphanage in Thailand, providing sunset. As I couldn’t leave him to climb him to grow up knowing about different food, stationery and medicines down on his own, we had to scramble cultures and places. to children in the Bolu and Barhal down rock faces in the dark a couple of Valleys, in Turkey, and solar hundred metres from the valley floor. We What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said cookers to a village in Rajasthan about your company? got down eventually – but with plenty to encourage people not to cut of cuts and bruises, ripped clothes, and Too many to mention! Cheesy, but true. down precious trees to use as relieved grins on our faces. firewood. They also run volunteer And what’s the worst – and was it justified!? placements including building What’s the worst example of irresponsible When a client wasn’t met at Cairo airport toilets for the families of porters in tourism you’ve come across – and were you – she accused us of putting her life in Peru, assisting with conservation able to do anything about it? danger as she was vulnerable to kidnap work at the Alto Choco cloud Boats on the Yangtse throwing all their from Al Qaeda operatives from Iraq. forest reserve in Ecuador and rubbish bags directly into the river; we caring for elephants at the were able to stop this on our own boats by What do your staff moan about most?

Elephant Nature Park, Thailand.

What’s the most inspiring trip you’ve been on with Imaginative Traveller?

Our ‘Mysterious Madagascar’ tour.

Madagascar’s renowned for its wildlife - but I found the people to be just as much of a highlight, and the lack of mass tourism makes this a real gem to explore.

What’s the most extreme trip you offer?

Our ‘Into the Heart of Papua’ tour which involves eight days trekking through the Baliem Valley in the Indonesian part of New Guinea.

And the soft option for a wussy traveller?

threatening to withhold tips but other boats continue to follow this practice

Me probably! Or clients turning up on tour who aren’t suitable for the trip.

What’s the hardest ‘house rule’ (principle of responsible tourism) to keep?

If you ruled the world of tourism what would be your first act?

Reducing the amount of flights I take.

Make people take cultural sensitivity tests before being allowed a passport.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you give to customers?

Don’t expect things to work as they do at home.

What company achievement are you most proud of over the past couple of years?

Providing so much support to Balika Sadan (a girls’ home in India) that they no longer require our help.

‘Egypt in Style’.

What’s the weirdest request you’ve ever had from a customer?

‘Can you ask my roommate to stop masturbating at night?’ Or ‘will there be somewhere to hang my colostomy bag?’

What’s the most ridiculous or dangerous thing you’ve had to do in the line of duty?

Climbed a (small) mountain with a client – when we got to the top he was adamant that he wanted to stay and watch the

Who’s the most famous client you’ve had – and what was he/she/they like?

Our sales girls got very excited when they saw the name ‘Jonathan Depp’ on a booking. When we saw he was born in 1945 they soon worked out he wasn’t quite the person they had hoped for.

If you could take anyone on one of your trips, who would it be, what would you show them, and why?

My son, when he’s a bit older – I want

86 | r:travel

And where would you rather be right now?

Watching the sun go down from a beachside restaurant in Stone Town, Zanzibar, with a cold Kilimanjaro beer in hand. www.imaginative-traveller.com

laikipia, kenya www.borana.com

Borana is a working cattle ranch on the edge of Kenyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s northern frontier. Ride, walk and drive amongst free-ranging wildlife and stunning landscapes. Come and experience the exclusive nature of Borana Lodge and Laragai House or ride with Riding Wild. Through our tourism we support our neighbouring communities with a mobile clinic, the education programme and in developing their own enterprises.

highly

commended

KE Adventure Travel

F

ounded in 1984, under the name Karakoram Experience, this adventure tour operator began by organising trips to the Karakoram Mountain range in Pakistan. As it expanded worldwide, the name changed to KE Adventure, which now runs trekking, climbing and biking expeditions, including family adventures and school trips. In 1993 they joined forces with the Juniper Trust charity to support sustainable community projects.

Over the past couple of years these have included installing fresh water tanks for villages in Morocco and Pakistan, building schools in India and Nepal, and solar-powered lighting in three villages in Peru and one in India.

Q&A with...

What’s the most extreme trip you offer?

We run trips to extreme altitude such as up to the north Col on Everest, which involve non-technical climbing. And any extended mountain journey in the Karakoram mountains will take you through uninhabited valleys filled with the world’s biggest glaciers outside the polar regions.

Age: 48 Location: Keswick, Lake District, UK What’s the most inspiring trip you’ve been on with KE Adventure Travel?

Leading KE’s first trek into the Lunana region of Bhutan, one of the world’s most isolated communities. When we arrived, we found that the village had been almost wiped out the night before by a glacial lake bursting its dam. The courage of the villagers and the harsh conditions in which they had to re-build their lives played a big part in inspiring me to involve KE with the Juniper Trust. There is still no other trek in the world to compare with the trip across northern Bhutan.

What company achievement are you most proud of over the past couple of years?

At the start of the year, we were awarded the AITO Achievement in Responsible Tourism Award in recognition of work we have carried out over the past 20 years.

And the softest option for a wussy traveller?

A ‘soft’ adventure trip with relatively easy trekking or even just touring, in destinations like India, Tibet, and Peru.

What’s the weirdest request you’ve ever had from a customer?

A man wanted to throw a surprise engagement party for his climber girlfriend in a very remote Himalayan valley.

What’s the most ridiculous or dangerous thing you’ve had to do in the line of duty?

Rescuing a dog from the summit ridge of Island Peak in Everest’s Khumbu Valley. The puppy had followed the climbing party up a steep 200-metre snow slope. Its claws were effective crampons on the way up but useless going down, and the dog was left whimpering at the top. One of the party climbed back up to rescue the pup, which he stuffed in his rucksack with its head poking out of the top and restrained from jumping out by the draw cord.

Name: Glenn Rowley Title: title Company director and co-founder (with Tim Greening)

the country, the customs and religious beliefs of the people.

What’s the worst example of irresponsible tourism you’ve come across – and were you able to do anything about it?

At the Paro religious festival in Bhutan, a group of westerners walked into the area where masked dancers were performing a sacred dance and pointed their cameras within a few feet of the dancers’ faces. It was appalling to watch but the Bhutanese themselves are far too polite to object. On that occasion our group told these people to stop their hooligan-like behaviour.

What’s the hardest ‘house rule’ (principle of responsible tourism) to keep?

To take time with people and not see them as just part of the scenery to be photographed.

Who’s the most famous client you’ve had – and what was he/she/they like?

When KE ran the first ever (combined) circumnavigation and climb of Mount Elbrus (5,642m) on the borders of Russia and Georgia, Chris Bonnington contacted us to see if he could tag along with our group for the attempt on the summit. It was an honour to stand on the summit with a climber I had read so much about as a child and during my earlier climbing days.

If you could take anyone on one of your trips, who would it be, what would you show them, and why?

My two sons (left). They have already been trekking in Nepal when they were six and eight, and last year we took Canadian canoes down the Athabasca River, camping on islands and seeing bears, elks and ospreys. Through children, you can see the world through different eyes.

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your company?

Sometimes, it’s just nice to hear ‘thank you’.

And what’s the worst – and was it justified!?

When we have genuinely failed in what we set out to do. We all make mistakes but we pull it off 98 per cent of the time!

What do your staff moan about most?

Only being able to leave the office for one or two trips a year.

If you ruled the world of tourism what would be your first act?

Prevent tourists from wearing, displaying, or doing things inappropriate for the cultures they are visiting.

Finally, where would you rather be right now?

What’s the single most important piece of advice you give to customers?

Take time before your trip to learn about

88 | r:travel

In the village of Tanza in Lunana, Bhutan or on Snow Lake in the Karakoram mountains. www.keadventure.com

Best Tour Operator | highly

commended

•

Tribes Travel

L

aunched ten years ago, Tribes, is an award-winning, independent Fair Trade Travel™ company, and globally-recognised pioneers of responsible travel. From a luxury African safari and a Galapagos Islands cruise to a short weekend break in Marrakech – Tribes offers a personal tailor-made travel service. The company also runs a charity, the Tribes Foundation which has so far donated around £16,000 in grants.

Just one of these, for two schoolrooms in a Maasai community, benefited 480 children in an area where kids have to walk 4km to school. Late last year Tribes also lobbied successfully against a huge development in Mosi-oa-Tunya national park, Zambia.

What’s the most inspiring trip you’ve been on with Tribes?

Visiting the ‘singing wells’ in a community wildlife conservancy in northern Kenya was magical and a privilege. I continually find it inspiring that some of the harshest situations we humans find ourselves in, bring out some of the most incredible sides to our humanity – beauty, bravery, generosity ...

The singing wells capture this perfectly.

What’s the most extreme trip you offer?

The most extreme trip in terms of hardship would probably be climbing Kilimanjaro. However we are also very good at arranging extreme luxury, extreme relaxation, extreme wildlife, and extreme fun!

And the softest option for a wussy traveller?

I find that when you’re in ‘wussy’ mode there is not much better than a gorgeous treehouse on a tiny Indian Ocean island, overlooking the white sand beach and blue sea. Lots of superb food and drink, a bit of swimming and snorkelling, and, when you feel like company, walk into the nearby village to have a chat to the local people.

around at the small, thin trees around me, I felt confident.

Then I saw the black rhino!

If you could take anyone on one of your trips, who would it be, what would you show them, and why?

What’s the worst example of irresponsible tourism you’ve come across – and were you able to do anything about it?

The right kind of travel is a real eye-opener for children, so I’d take my young sons to South Africa for a mix of cultural and wildlife experiences.

A rainforest lodge in a pristine area of Ecuador felt that it was fine to throw all their rubbish into the river. Yes, they were told, and thankfully cleaned up their act.

What’s the hardest ‘house rule’ (principle of responsible tourism) to keep?

Name: Amanda Marks Job : managing director Age: 43 Location: Suffolk, UK

Over 96 per cent of our clients rate their holidays with us as excellent. Here is just one comment: ‘The friendly, expert, personal and socially aware manner you arranged my holiday was truly great.’

Altruism.

What’s the single most important piece of advice you give to customers?

To travel with a sense of humour and humility.

What company achievement are What’s the weirdest request you’ve you most proud of over the past couple of years? ever had from a customer?

Q&A with...

What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about your company?

‘I’d like to go to the Sahara desert in Morocco and find a camel skeleton to take home. I like camels’. (Yes, she did find one, and yes, she did take it back to the US!).

To have achieved Investors in People certification. We’re delighted that while sticking to our ethical principles, we’ve also built a successful, well-run company.

What’s the most ridiculous or dangerous thing you’ve had to do in the line of duty?

Who’s the most famous client you’ve had –and what was he/she/ they like?

While testing a walking safari, the Maasai guide suddenly whispered to me ‘You can climb trees can’t you?’ Looking

We were privileged to successfully arrange Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ Kilimanjaro climb a few years ago.

89 | r:travel

And what’s the worst – and was it justified!?

It happens rarely, but we all have our bad days!

What do your staff moan about most?

Our sales manager’s shorts.

If you ruled the world of tourism what would be your first act?

I would like to see realistic prices charged.

Finally, where would you rather be right now?

With my family and our Maasai guide on a hill in a remote corner of west Kilimanjaro looking out onto the plains of Tanzania and Kenya, with Mount Kilimanjaro behind us, and a sundowner in hand. www.tribes.co.uk

•

•| Meet the Judges

DEBBIE HINDLE is managing director and a founder of bgb, the specialist travel and leisure communications company, and has worked on sustainable travel issues for organisations ranging from tourist boards to NGOs. She is also a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s Crisis Action Team, and Global Business Leaders Forum.

Meet the Judges HAROLD GOODWIN, Chair of Judges, is professor of responsible tourism management at Leeds Metropolitan University and director of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism – where he runs an MSc in responsible tourism management – the first of its kind. He drafted the Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations in 2002, which defined the agenda for change.

CATH URQUHART was travel editor of The Times from 1997 until June 2007. She continues to write for The Times as a freelance journalist, and is also the author of The Times Holiday Handbook, a consumer guide to planning the perfect holiday, and the newly-published The Times Travel Journal, a diary for travellers that contains essential tips and advice.

SUE HURDLE is chief executive of The Travel Foundation, the government- and industry-backed sustainable tourism charity – founded in 1998 – which helps the UK travel industry to take effective action on sustainable tourism, by focussing on protecting and enhancing the environment and improving the wellbeing of destination communities.

JUSTIN FRANCIS is MD of online travel directory responsibletravel.com which he co-founded in 2001, and which founded and organises The Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards in association with The Times, World Travel Market, Geographical magazine and headline sponsors Virgin Holidays. Justin is a trustee of The Travel Foundation, and writes regularly on responsible tourism for magazines and newspapers.

TRICIA BARNETT is the director of Tourism Concern, the UK-based charity that campaigns for ethical and fairly-traded tourism. Tricia has spoken in places as diverse as the UN, the European Union and schools and churches. Her passion about the issues is undiminished after 15 years!

NEEL INAMDAR is ecotourism business advisor for the organisation Conservation International. He has more than 15 years’ experience in hospitality management and operations in Africa, the UK and the United States. He has built, owned and operated 300-bed beach resorts, safari camps and a tour company specialising in safaris in East Africa.

GRAEME GOURLAY is publisher of Geographical magazine, the monthly magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, and runs Circle Publishing which also produces DIVE, Snow, Active, Business Franchise and Christian Aid News. He launched Circle ten years ago after a successful career as a national newspaper journalist.

ANDREW COOPER is director general of the Federation of Tour Operators, the association representing the interests of the larger tour operating groups in relation to political issues, as well as working jointly in the areas of Health & Safety, Crisis Management and Responsible Tourism. He is also the director general of the International Federation of Tour Operators.

IAN REYNOLDS was chief executive of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) from 1994 until September 2005. He is currently non-executive chairman of Citybond Holdings PLC, a director of General Industries PLC and NTP Limited, which provides training throughout the travel industry. He is also a trustee of the Travel Foundation, the Family Holiday Association and St Mary’s Paddington Charitable Trust.

FIONA JEFFERY is chairman of World Travel Market – the business-to-business exhibition for the global travel trade which plays host to the awards. In 1998 she founded and is now chairman of the international travel and tourism industry charity, Just a Drop. Its aims are to deliver clean water to more than 1.1 billion children worldwide who have no access near their homes.

RICHARD HAMMOND writes a regular column on eco-friendly holidays in The Guardian and is the editor of a worldwide book called Green Places to Stay (Alastair Sawday Publishing). He has also written widely on responsible travel for magazines and has recently launched greentraveller.co.uk, a website that gives tips on how to have a greener holiday and where to find green places to stay.

KEITH RICHARDS is a barrister and ABTA’s head of business development and consumer affairs. He also heads up ABTA complaints handling, access to justice, education and events departments. He is a member of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, the body which advises the UK Government on disabilities and accessible transport.

90 | r:travel

escape to the real world...

responsible travel

...comes naturally to us “World Expeditions is a global adventure travel company with over 30 years experience around the planet. Their Nepal trekking operation run by Nepalis for Nepalis, is notable for its pioneering Porter Protection Programme that has set the industry benchmark which many companies are starting to follow.”

Highly Commended ‘Best in a Mountain Environment’ Responsible Tourism Awards, 2006

FREE BROCHURES 0800 074 4135 worldexpeditions.com

Independent adventure travel specialists since 1975

There’s more to life than the world you live in. Experience the real world with Intrepid.

Overall winners of The Responsible Tourism Awards 2006

For info, bookings and NEW 2008 brochures, www.intrepidtravel.com/rtmag call 0203 147 7777 or visit our London store at 76 Upper St, Islington N1 0NU

“

relationship to theice or snow.

Extreme cold isnot an obstacle in

to life here,it’s a

requirement.”

Dr. Peter Kershaw, Earthwatch Scientist, Climate Change at the Arctic’s Edge

wildlife conservation

research

adventure

environment

120 expeditions globally.

Work with scientists investigating environmental impacts including climate change across the globe, from rainforests in the Americas and Australia, to Asia’s coral reefs and Africa’s wildlife.

For an expedition guide call +44 (0)1865 318831 or see

www.earthwatch.org/europe/rta.html

420-10-07 Photograph © Martin Hartley www.martinhartley.com

• real value • real experiences • small groups

EverythingintheArctic exists

The Trip That

Changed My Life Whether it’s trekking to Everest base camp or Macchu Pichu, gorilla-watching in Rwanda, cycling across the Sinai desert or diving in the Galápagos, plenty of tour operators these days promise you ‘a life-changing experience’. For most people that means little more than a camera-full of pictures and some pretty fantastic memories.

But for some, that once-in-a-lifetime adventure really does do what it says on the tin, prompting a complete reappraisal of their life and values. Here, four travellers talk about how their lives have spun off in a totally unexpected direction

Vicky Smith

33, from London

I

stood in the middle of the busy street, surrounded by thronging masses.

There were no cars or buses, just thousands of people on a mission.

I felt rooted to the spot. Like a film scene, the world around me was in fast forward but I was in slow motion. I felt detached, even though I was aware of being constantly jostled. I felt my throat constrict and inhaled deeply to calm myself, totally and unexpectedly overwhelmed by culture shock.

I’ve always had a passion for travel and have done as much as finances and time allowed, But I’d never experienced anything like this. And what was ridiculous, this wasn’t Africa, where I had spent the last few months backpacking and volunteering in remote villages and wilderness reserves in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. This was my hometown, London. Oxford Street to be precise, just before Christmas last year. I suddenly felt out of place, a complete stranger. I usually love Christmas shopping, but the spree I’d planned seemed so overwhelmingly trite, pointless and superficial.

It hadn’t changed of course, I had.

I used to like shopping, gossip mags and rubbish TV and all the rest. But they now held no interest for me whatsoever. I just longed to be back in Africa.

I’d come to London after working in the ski industry in Europe, moved into being an international conference manager in the internet technologies, taking my skills from that back to the travel industry, where I applied them developing and marketing mainstream travel websites. Then I took

92 | r:travel

a career break and left the corporate world to go to Africa. And Africa blew me away. To be at one with nature under African skies at night; to see the beautiful faces of the kids in the rural communities.

To witness the effects of AIDS, both physical and economic, as those of working age are obliterated, leaving elderly and frail grandparents to look after their orphans.

To see the long-term consequences of policies such as apartheid, arms sales and genocide which have ravaged African nations. To know that, at 33, I was beyond the life expectancy of most of the people in the countries I visited.

And so I returned and decided I wanted a web development and marketing role in responsible volunteer travel – not so different from my last job but with a different, infinitely more satisfying, intention – to facilitate tourism to be a force for good. After some hard graft, that’s exactly what I’m now doing, with different-travel. com. Nearly a year on and the intensity of that Oxford Street feeling has subsided a little, but it’s certainly not gone away.

Life is more precious to me, to be treated more respectfully, and my sense of self is stronger. I’m probably less tolerant of senseless, egotistical behaviour but kinder to myself. I make more time in my life for health and vitality, physical and spiritual, and I’ve taken up things I’ve been meaning to do for years but never seemed to have the time, like finishing the DIY jobs, practising yoga and reading more.

That Africa trip certainly changed my life.

It changed my job, my working day, my focus, my drive and above all, it changed my perspective. I can’t wait to go back.

•

Travel experiences |

Jill Goulder

54, from London

J

anuary 2002 was cold and wet. A holiday (white-water rafting in South America) had fallen through at a few days’ notice, and I was left, with a two-week gap, money earmarked and a longing for sunshine and action. I wanted to be physically stretched, not just a spectator, and I specifically wanted to learn something and/or contribute to the country that I was visiting. A rapid search on the Internet threw up an intriguing possibility – and the following week I reported for work at Earthwatch’s Origins of Angkor archaeological project in eastern Thailand.

What appealed here was that it wasn’t some pseudoscientific holiday dreamed up to entertain us. We were treated as bona fide archaeology students, given responsibilities and training in

special skills and encouraged to learn about the project, which was to provide evidence that the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat, just over the modern border in Cambodia, were not built by an incoming ‘master race’ but by the indigenous people of the region. I was especially struck by the close relationship of the archaeologists with the local villagers, who were excited and interested that their own heritage was being uncovered.

Back then I was 49 and a selfemployed business marketing research consultant. My work was sluggish and I was drifting, feeling unfulfilled. I thought I was worrying about not earning enough money: in fact it was the shortage of challenging work that was getting me down.

My new life didn’t start immediately on my return from Thailand, but a seed had been sown, and it germinated a year

later when I saw a brochure for a Certificate in Archaeology at Reading University – a universitylevel evening course requiring no previous experience and aimed at mature students. Two astonishing years later, my brain bursting with new concepts, I applied to University College London to do an MA in Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. They have a good system of enrolling mature students from outside the archaeology discipline into a year’s preparatory course before embarking on the MA proper.

I’m now happy and busy in my second year of the MA itself, and have several seasons of digging in Jordan, Syria and Turkey under my belt. I am starting to fulfil a long-held dream of being able to offer skilled help to a region in a period of change, perhaps one day helping to reconstruct

93 | r:travel

Iraq and Lebanon’s shattered heritage and encourage the development of local archaeological expertise.

My life has completely turned around from five years ago: I have stimulation, purpose, motivation and a new world of friends and colleagues. My brain is being massively stretched, and my summer work in the Near East – which allows me to see a country and its people as someone working there – has happily and permanently replaced my days as a tourist. I’ve realised that after a certain age, life doesn’t carry on coming to you: you have to go out and grab it for yourself. The Earthwatch project opened my consciousness not only to what a great world of different activities was out there, but also to what I was capable of doing myself, and how many doors open if you just dare to push on them.

Anthony Waugh

50, from Rugby, Warwickshire

I

was working as a project manager for a commercial design company. There were the usual pressures of deadlines, client liaison, sales targets, contractor and site management and so on. I would end working days wondering what it was all for, knowing that there was more to life. I was simply earning money to pay the mortgage and making money for the firm to pay other peoples’ larger mortgages.

I had become conscious of a growing desire to help others; it began with voluntary work at weekends and evenings but then I took a sabbatical year to travel and do voluntary work; it was a wonderfully fulfilling experience and it showed me where my heart lay.

When the Asian tsunami happened I donated money, like so many people, but I also needed to do more, to do something practical. I found a volunteer scheme run by Charity Challenge and Habitat

for Humanity, helping to build houses for affected families in Sri Lanka. It was only for a week but meant I could make some practical contribution.

It was a week of many emotions disbelief at the damage and suffering, an emotional rollercoaster of helping the families build their new homes while hearing, first-hand, their stories of personal loss. The houses were relatively simple but gave people back their pride and independence. The tears and smiles from everyone involved when the houses were handed over said everything.

I returned home determined to do more. It was like a drug – once you had experienced ‘the high’ of direct involvement with aid work, it hooked and inspired you to do more. I was determined to make the change – to get out of my safety zone and into full-time aid work.

I got back in touch with Habitat for

94 | r:travel

Humanity, and within two months I had quit my job and was on my way back to Sri Lanka where I worked on tsunami projects for four months and then moved on to disaster mitigation projects in India for the next three months.

I am still working with Habitat for Humanity, but on a longer-term project in London. However, on the back of contacts made in Sri Lanka last year I am now also helping ActionAid develop a local programme in Cambodia and will go out there this month to help supervise the work.

I can happily say that since being inspired to make the change to aid work not a single day has felt like ‘work’. There are still good days and bad days, like any job, but bad days don’t matter any more because I know I’m where I’m meant to be.

It’s a great feeling knowing you are doing work your heart tells you is right – what could be a better way of living your life?’

•

Travel experiences |

‘I

explored the world and found myself’ About four years ago, after working in travel PR for eight years I decided it was high time to leave my desk and explore the world for myself, rather than sending cynical journalists off to do it. After spending nine weeks travelling across Central America, I set off on a tenweek volunteering stint on the tropical island of Madagascar, with Azafady, a Malagasy NGO. Madagascar was a country I knew nothing about; I knew nobody who had been there and it sounded like a great opportunity to really get off the beaten track.

Our group of ten volunteers lived in tents and worked on a variety of humanitarian and conservation projects, including an HIV study among local young people, and building desks and benches for a remote school. We took part in a turtle-monitoring project and did lots of tree-planting with local communities. It was a great experience and I met some wonderful people, but sometimes it was quite depressing to see just how little people actually do survive on.

Despite, or maybe because of this, the trip really inspired me to become more involved in charity work. After the stint ended I came back to the UK

for two months to save up some money and then returned to Madagascar for six months to follow up on the HIV education work I had started. When I finally returned to the UK three years ago, Azafady invited me to become a trustee.

But my desire for change went deeper. The experiences I’d had in Madagascar had really affected my outlook on life, and I decided to completely change the course of my career and move full-time into the charity sector.

I got a job with one of the UK’s biggest overseas development agencies, Christian Aid, where I am now PR manager. Over the past few years I have organised

Karen Hedges

35, (top left) from Aldershot, Hampshire

95 | r:travel

a number of art exhibitions on the Millennium Development Goals and Children in Conflict, managed a show garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show on HIV, worked on two major disaster appeals – for the tsunami and Pakistan earthquake – and travelled to Angola, Senegal, Brazil and Jamaica to see Christian Aid projects at work.

Whenever I visit a Christian Aid partner organisation, it reinforces just why I do this job.

I get a wonderful feeling of satisfaction that I now have the opportunity to give people in the developing world a voice; a chance to tell their story to people across the UK.

CALL OUR HOTLINE ON 01795 414 881 QUOTING REF RT07 or subscribe online at www.geographical.co.uk

Explore the mysteries and wonders of planet Earth with a subscription to Geographical magazine • Save over 34% on the cover price • Pay only £29 for 12 issues (saving you £15.40) • Free delivery direct to your door – no need to hunt in the shops • Never miss an issue Geographical is one of that rare breed of magazines that you cannot bear to throw away – it is timeless Jonathan Scott, BBC Big Cat Diary presenter and award-winning wildlife photographer

Must every fflight be a

guilt trip?

Can you be a truly responsible traveller and still hop aboard a plane for your trip trekking in the Andes, staying in an eco-lodge in Costa Rica or a homestay in Thailand?

Huw Williams tries to find the answer

98 | r:travel

Responsible Flying |

T

Jennny vallis

o fly or not to fly? That’s become the question that defines the debate over climate change and how we prevent it. Carbon emissions from a steadily growing international aviation industry are almost a metaphor for modern society’s inherent dilemma: pleasure now and pain later, or prudence now for preservation’s sake?

It’s arguable that aviation has become a whipping boy and that much of the criticism of its carbon footprint is disproportionate: it’s not the only dirty industry that could be cleaner. However, whether it’s fair to single it out or not, there is a case to answer and, simplistically put, the battle lines look like this.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, aviation accounts for 1.6 per cent of global carbon emissions and as an international industry it is growing by around five per cent per year. At the same time there is consensus that carbon must be curbed; the EU, for example, recently pledged to cut all greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

The airline industry will tell you that

•

aviation is essential for global economic health. Temper or curtail that growth and pay the price with an economic downturn.

Paul Charles, director of communications for Virgin Atlantic, is assured that significant carbon reductions will come from technological innovation. ’You can have as much growth as you want if you have clean growth. We are about to demonstrate bio-fuels on one of our planes. It’s those sort of solutions that are needed and then we can grow responsibly so you can have the economic growth without the environmental damage caused.’

In the opposite corner, even moderate environmentalists like Nic Ferriday of Airport Watch and the Aviation Environment Federation say growth must stop. We must curb our increasing fascination with flight, they say, asserting that the aviation industry can’t be trusted to put its own house in order.

‘Aviation is basically a luxury and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be taxed as other luxury goods are,’ he says. ‘We don’t want people to overdo flying because of the environmental impact, so a tax would be fair and just.’

Listen to the airlines and they will say to passengers that taking less luggage might help. They say we should leave it to the industry and governments to sort emissions out. Technological advancement combined with operational changes like sloughing off unnecessary weight from planes, taxiing on two engines instead of four, landing with engines in idle – innovations like these will all add up.

Add in political changes such as signing up to a European-wide emissions trading agreement and introducing a Single European Sky to rationalise air traffic control so planes can fly point to point – that alone could save around 12 million tonnes of carbon a year. There’s no need to fly less.

The environmentalists urge you not to fly if you can take the train, to reduce the number of times you do fly and if you must fly, fly further and stay for longer. One long-haul flight will be less harmful than several short-stay, short-haul trips.

It’s a polarised and complex debate and it is the responsible travel industry that

➤➤ 99 | r:travel

•| Responsible Flying provides the most acute perspective, as it is firmly skewered on the horns of this dilemma. It has to be supportive of aviation because it relies on it to transport a large number of its clients, especially to longhaul destinations. Yet environmental culpability is a key element of its rationale, so they must support anything that could help combat global warming. Responsible tourism also puts a value on the conservation of parks and forests – and protecting these forests is very important for slowing global warming. Reforestation offset schemes are all very well but preserving exisiting mature trees is better!

Responsible tourism is committed, too, to helping people in impoverished communities share in the economic benefits of tourism. Not just because tourism can provide up to 70 per cent of GDP to some underdeveloped countries but through responsible tourism, much of this is channelled into the pockets of local people, through direct employment and the purchase of goods and services. Take away the opportunity for travellers to fly affordably and easily to these destinations and there could be a significant if not colossal collapse of fragile economies.

This would be most sharply felt in underdeveloped countries which rely on long-haul flights to bring in foreign visitors.

According to Harold Goodwin, Professor of Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Metropolitan University, 46 of the world’s 49 least- developed countries rely on tourism to keep their economies afloat.

Jo Pope of Robin Pope Safaris was the winner of the Best Personal Contribution to Responsible Tourism Award in 2005. She says that a reduction in the numbers of people flying could have a catastrophic impact on the communities near her operation in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park.

‘Other than minimal cash crop production, the entire economy of South Luangwa is based on tourism. If the tourism stops there is no other economy to turn to and that’s 25,000 people with no food on the table.’

It would not just be people who would suffer. A downturn in visitor numbers could also threaten the integrity of hard-won conservation gains. Environmental benefits in reduced carbon emissions by aircraft at the cost of African ecosystems.

‘Without international tourism, none of

these African national parks would survive.

If we suddenly stopped flying in tourists I think in Zambia it would take as little as five years for all the conservation work to be undone, for all those animal populations to be depleted.’

For responsible travel it seems flying is a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, but is there a solution? Harold Goodwin says maybe there is.

‘The whole objective of responsible travel is to help people travel responsibly.

That should include flying. We need to be able to educate consumers to make sensible decisions about flying, and we need to do it fast.’

At the moment the messages are myriad

“

We need to educate consumers to make sensible decisions about flying, and we need to do it fast

Goodwin has little time for most offset schemes. ‘There are a few which operate to the Gold standard, but most offset schemes don’t actually offset your carbon. They are good in that they encourage people to give charitably, but people shouldn’t kid themselves that that’s offsetting the carbon that would be pumped out as a result of their flight.

‘If you plant forest, the assumption is that over the lifetime of the trees you planted, it would absorb the CO2 which you have spewed into the atmosphere. The difficulty is the timescale: the CO2 is going out immediately but it takes time for the trees to absorb the carbon.’

The challenge for the responsible travel industry is to sift all the information and present it in a concise and digestible manner. The problem is, at the moment the necessary facts just aren’t readily available. Hugo Kimber is the CEO of the Carbon Consultancy, a company that provides data and analysis of carbon emissions to facilitate reduction and mitigation strategies and has been looking closely at the aviation industry. ’Basic labelling is essential to allow consumers to understand the impact of their choice to fly. The airlines need to provide fuel consumption data about individual aircraft and routes. This would reduce a lot of the uncertainty of the data and would allow the airlines to show exactly what their impact is.’

This is just the sort of detailed information that Professor Goodwin is looking to disseminate. ’We need something as simple as a website where you can book your holiday and it actually tells you how much carbon you are going to use if you fly that route on that plane, as opposed to another route. Until that sort of information is out in the public domain, consumers can’t make informed responsible choices.’

And there’s a final twist. Rather than suffering from the current debate about aviation, with detailed information available to consumers, the responsible travel industry could well benefit from unease over the carbon cost of flying.

If more travellers start to consider the impacts of their flight, then more will also consider the carbon impact of what they do when they get there, something that can only play into the hands of responsible travel operators.

”

and mixed. Low-cost airlines are driving demand for flying and therefore growth, but on a per-passenger basis they can be more carbon-efficient compared to scheduled carriers, as their aircraft often fly full. Taking a flight might be carbon costly but what of the overall savings in emissions that come from leaving behind a cold northern winter, turning down the heating, leaving the car in the garage and heading south for a low-carbon holiday? Taking a single long-haul flight may well be a better option than several short-haul trips, but how do you know which airline is the most carbon efficient and which route do you choose?

‘The point is,’ says Goodwin, ‘that there are things which could be done, and just wringing our hands in horror and saying “Don’t fly” is unrealistic.’

And what of carbon offsetting, whereby you pay a premium based on your carbon emissions from a flight, with that cash then being invested in a reforestation or renewable energy project?

100 80 ||r:travel r:travel

•

Dive Red Sea

- the Ultimate Guide £20

by Simon Rogerson and John McIntyre

‘DIVE Red Sea is surely the ‘must have’ book to pack into the dive bag of anyone wanting to get the best out of diving the Red Sea’ Michael Pitts, Emmy award-winning BBC Blue Planet underwater cameraman

Available from Amazon through DIVE at

www.divemagazine.co.uk/diveredsea

Beware gifts bearing geeks

veryone who comes to Washington does it. You strike a noble pose in front of the black railings that keep the rest of the world at arm’s length from its most famous residence – The White House.

Thousands of snaps are taken every day, but mine will be a bit different – I’m wearing a bright yellow cycle helmet and a bright blue bum-bag, balancing on a tiny platform suspended between two fat wheels, and holding (with the closest I can get to nonchalance) a set of waist-high handlebars.

I look ridiculous. But I don’t care.

No one knows me here. And anyway, my inhibitions vanished somewhere between 12th and 13th Streets as I experienced the Segway tour – the urban sightseeing gimmick that’s sweeping the capital of the free world, at the rate of, ooh, about 18 people a day.

You may remember the Segway Human Transporter. It looks like a cross between a chariot and your granny’s shopping basket. Launched in December 2001

by American inventor Dean Kamen, it was supposed to revolutionise personal transport and commuting. It didn’t,

102 | r:travel

although a US users’ group, SEG America, now has more than 3,400 members spread across two dozen branches rather self-deludingly called ‘chapters’. It has, though, become a hit with tourists in some of America and Europe’s more pedestrian-friendly cities. Here in Washington, at the $70 it costs for a two-hour ‘safari’ with Segs in the City, they remain a novelty, but a novelty that works.

And, against all odds, I can see why. The Segway is a lot of fun for a couple of hours, even if you do look like a prat. My tour group being mostly Brits, we cover up our embarrassment by humming the theme from The Dambusters as we switch to a V-formation and bear down on a pair of slouchy skateboarders.

After a few minutes we’re already experts, unlike the city’s most famous resident, George Bush, who fell off when he tried one, putting himself among the three per cent who just can’t get it.

But they’re absurdly simple to get the hang of. You flick off the kick-stand, pop the first of three colour-coded spoon-like keys into the ignition, press a button, wait for the ‘happy face’ to appear in a small screen, and step onto the platform.

Five gyroscopic devices immediately kick in to help you maintain your balance, sensing your weight distribution, which it checks a100 times a second, while each wheel is driven by a separate motor. To go forward you lean forward, from the ankles. To reverse, you lean backwards.

To slow and stop you lean in the opposite direction from the one in which you’re heading. A twist grip also allows you to turn left or right, slowing one motor and speeding up the other. At top speed it helps to lean into the corners, but apart

illustration: shutterstock.co.uk

E

Is the Segway human transporter a gift to responsible sightseeing? Or does it just make you feel like a prat?

Roger Fulton finds out (but hides the visual evidence)

•

Sightseeing |

from that you pretty much stand there like you’re delivering a sermon from a pulpit.

Expat Brit Bill Main and his partner Tonia Edwards brought them to DC a few years ago and now run franchises in Annapolis, Baltimore and Gettysburg. As we set off to see the sights of Washington, we suspect we look ludicrous but Bill tells us to just wait and see how people react.

And he’s right. The smiles we get are not of pity but of fascination. Everyone wants to know what we’re on. Kids think they’re ‘well cool!’ At one intersection while we’re waiting for the lights to change, a gawping youngster in baggy shorts and baseball cap looks me up and down and asks: ‘Can you do stunts?’ As I turn 360 degrees on the spot, his mouth gapes even wider. ‘Wow, that’s so cool!’

Suited DC politicos and execs smile and crack jokes. Old ladies mistake us for their shopping trolleys.

One thing the Segway is not, however, is a babe magnet. A couple of times I invited pretty girls to hop aboard; I got a funny look each time, though that may have been the sunny yellow helmet and

the dorky ‘fanny pack’ Bill gave us.

Pretty soon, he tells us to stop and restart using a different ‘spoon’. We’d begun with yellow, which allows you to go up to 6 mph. This time we’re going for black, which adds a couple more mph. Later, Bill lets us go for the red – and a cheek-wobbling adrenalin-rush top speed of 12.5mph, warning us that if we hit anything or come off now, bits of man and machine could get broken. And if we lock wheels with another Segway we will very quickly become intimate with its rider, as the machines will spin round to face each other.

Washington is well-suited to a Segway tour. One of the most European of America’s big cities, it has expansive boulevards and wide pavements. Many of its sights and monuments are spread out around the city, and who wants to sit on a crowded tour bus when you can zip along in the open air, like an open-top Dalek, the supreme sightseer of the universe?

We pose for snaps at the bottom of the steps leading up to the Capitol building (like an old-time Dalek, the Segway

103 | r:travel

doesn’t do stairs), then speed off again, up to The White House, for more pictures, before heading back to base on the corner of 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. There, Bill admits the Segway is a niche market. ‘They never really caught on outside geek world.’

But it’s a gift to low-carbon tourism.

Segs in the City’s two-hour Washington tours come in at six miles, comfortably achieved with one battery charge which gives the Segway a range of 12 miles.

‘And anyone can ride one,’ Bill points out. ‘The average age of the riders we get is 30-50, but the youngest we’ve had is 14 and the oldest has been 94.’

There is a weight limit, however. Anyone above about 250-270lb, will break the thing, which rules out the morbidly obese.

You can buy Segways in the UK (they cost around £2,800) but there have not been many takers so far. Tony Blair was given one as a gift, but he can’t ride it on the pavement. His government banned them from our streets. Don’t expect to see them on the school run just yet… www.segsinthecity.com

•

•| Green kit

Nike Considered Humara

3 Trail shoe

Vaude Lite Shirt

2 Base layer

Osprey Circuit

ten

1 Rucksack

It’s entirely feasible to kit yourself out from head to toe in top-of-the-range outdoor gear that is eco-friendly as well as wallet-friendly. Check out these items and do your bit for the environment

£50/1.08 kilograms With 70 per cent recycled content, this 32-litre rucksack is built for everyday use.

An integral laptop sleeve folds fflat when not required. Build quality is superb; it’s impossible to tell the difference between this and others made from regular materials

£22/117 grams Made to Bluesign’s stringent standards, the Lite Shirt is one of a range of base layers made from Ecolog recycled polyester, so that it can be reincarnated into a new wicking layer at the end of its useful life. A women’s version is also available

£75/230 grams The Humara is made without adhesives of any kind, which reduces toxic effects on factory workers and the environment. A lightweight trail-running shoe, it features a Phylon midsole and a carbon-rubber-web outsole. Available in the UK from January

4 Socks

5 Helmet

6 Waterproof jacket

7 Sleeping bag

Patagonia Women’s Eco Rain Shell

Big Agnes Battle Mountain

£140/581 grams The outer fabric and mesh lining of this two-ply jacket are made entirely from wrinkle-resistant, recycled polyester. A two-way front zip is protected by a storm flap; three pockets can hold a supply of organic snack bars. The hood is removable

From US$289 (£143)/from 2.18 kilograms The base of this award-winning sleeping bag is fılled with bamboo charcoal insulation. The bamboo is burned at 800°C, producing a charcoal that can be spun into a synthetic fıbre. The top of the bag is fılled with goose down

8 Sleeping mat

9 Cooking

10 Lighting

Don’t forget…

Cyba-Lite Eco Wind-Up Torch

Salewa Helium £50/260 grams Its construction may not be eco-friendly, but as the Helium has received CE approval for climbing, biking and paddling, you can now own one helmet instead of three. This reduces the number of products that need to be made, and saves you a small fortune

Greenheat fuel cells

US$14 (£7)/85 grams More than three quarters of this sock is made from corn; if you want something more eco-friendly, then go barefoot. It has all the features that you would expect, including a reinforced toe, a Y-heel and a Lycra arch. Available in the UK from January

Pacific Outdoor Women’s Eco Thermo 6 Sleeping Pad

Teko Ingeo Ultra-Light Crew

of the best

US$145 (£72)/610 grams A winner of green gear awards in North America, this sleeping mattress uses a similar carbonised bamboo filling as the Battle Mountain sleeping bag. The dye-free outer is puncture-resistant, and the infflation valve is made from recycled aluminium

£4/518 grams (per twin pack) Ideal for use inside a Trangia stove, this fuel cell emits a non-toxic flame produced from sugar cane. Recommended by the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. A variant of the cell, with a rudimentary windshield/pot support, is also available

£13/270 grams A viable alternative to conventional torches, this offering from Cyba-Lite combines the latest LED technology with the age-old hand-crank, so you can leave batteries behind. A wind-up lantern (£30) for in-tent use is also available

Stockists and information

… to keep your unwanted outdoor gear out of landfills.

One potential recipient is Porters’ Progress, which needs specialist outdoor clothing and kit for Nepalese porters. Send your clean gear to Gaby Dean, World Expeditions, 81 Craven Gardens, Wimbledon, London SW19 8LU, or visit www.worldexpeditions.com Courtesy of Geographical Magazine

Action Outdoors: 01473 211647; www.actionoutdoors.co.uk

Nike: 0800 056 1640; www.nike.com

Teko: +1 303 449 7681; www.tekosocks.com

Big Agnes: +1 970 871 1480; www.bigagnes.com

Osprey: 01202 572775; www.osprey.com

The Mountain Factor: 015394 32752; www.themountainfactor.com

Cotswold Outdoor: 0870 442 7755; www.cotswoldoutdoor.com

Pacific Outdoor: +1 406 586 5258; www.pacoutdoor.com

Tiso: 0131 554 9101; www.tiso.com

Countryside Ski & Climb: 0800 298 9975; www.countryside.co.uk

Patagonia: 0800 0260 0055; www.patagonia.com/europe

Vaude: 01665 510660; www.vaude.com

Cyba-Lite: 0113 213 7389; www.ringautomotive.co.uk

Patagonia Dublin: +353 1 670 5748

Ellis Brigham: 0870 444 5555; www.ellis-brigham.com

REI: +1 253 891 2500; www.rei.com

Greenheat: 0116 234 4644; www.greenheat.co.za

Salewa: +39 0471 242 650; www.salewa.com

Mountain Equipment Co-Op: +1 604 709 6241; www.mec.ca

Snow & Rock: 0845 100 1000; www.snowandrock.com

Needlesports: 017687 72227; www.needlesports.co.uk

Taunton Leisure: 01392 424515; www.tauntonleisure.com

104 | r:travel

All prices quoted are recommended/suggested retail prices. Alternatively, you can use the search facility on the Outdoor Industries Association website at www.go-outdoors.org.uk to find you nearest approved retailer

Nestled in 65 acres of organic subtropical gardens and parkland on the banks of the tranquil Helford River. Leisure facilities include a spectacular indoor pool with log fire, sauna, outdoor hot tub, Natural Heath Spa, tennis courts, 9-hole Golf Course, private foreshore and award winning restaurant with local seafood specilities.

•W inners of the 2006 Cornwall Sustainability Awards – medium sized business • Listed as one of the UK’s Top 30 Greenest hotels by the Green Tourism Business Scheme Nr Helford Passage, Mawnan Smith, Falmouth, Cornwall, TR11 5LG

Tel: 01326 252100 email: Relax@budockvean.co.uk

www.budockvean.co.uk

when they surface…

…around the UK and across the world on an adventure with WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

We offer responsible whale and dolphin watching holidays all over the globe, from Alaska to the Azores, Scotland to Spain. And when you travel with us, you’ll be helping to save these amazing animals because a share of the proceeds goes to WDCS.

Don’t miss out! To order your copy of our brochure, call 01249 449533/547 or email outoftheblue@wdcs.org now!

WDCS is the global voice for the protection of whales, dolphins and their environment. out of the blue is a trading name of WDCS (Trading) Limited (Registered in England No. 2593116) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (Charity No. 1014705) and covenants all post tax profits to the charity. www.wdcs.org/outoftheblue Pics: dolphins © Charlie Phillips/WDCS, others © Ingrid N Visser/www.orcaresearch.org

ANTARCTICA out of the blue is a trading name of WDCS (Trading) Limited (Registered in England No. 2593116) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (Charity No. 1014705) and covenants all post tax profits to the charity. www.wdcs.org/outoftheblue Pics: All pics © Rob Lott/WDCS.

Be there

Join out of the blue and WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, on a journey to one of the most awe inspiring places on earth…

be there when they surface...

WDCS is the global voice for the protection of whales, dolphins and their environment.

Sailing aboard our chartered expedition vessel, we will see Antarctic nature in all its glory as we search for orca, humpback and minke whales accompanied

by Erich Hoyt, a world renowned researcher.

Prices from £3990, flights not included.

4th March – 17th March 08 Tel: 01249 449 533 www.wdcs.org/outoftheblue Erich Hoyt is a cetacean researcher and the author of over 400 publications including 15 books. He is the co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project and Senior Research Fellow with WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

r:travel classified Walks in Spain.

Guided and self guided.

Multi adventure activities

mountainwalks.com

0870 068 5158.

iceland advert

info@elsfrares.com

O<DGJM H<?@ CJGD?<TN OJ NJPOC DI?D<

5FM Walks in Spain. & NBJM JOGP!LFSBMBDPOOFDUJPOT DP VL Guided and self guided.

XXX LFSBMBDPOOFDUJPOT DP VL Multi adventure activities

(@M<G< ,++" 1&,+0 mountainwalks.com "50- 1SPUFDUFE

0870 068 5158.

2008 BROCHURE NOW

AVAILABLE

24/10/07

Iceland HOLIDAYS

The fly drive of your life!

IcelandHolidays.com

01773 853 300

Crich, Derbyshire Email: info@icelandholidays.com

info@elsfrares.com

mongolia

Walks p einr sSpain. onal journeys to an unspoilt & inspiring land Guided and self guided.

Multi adventure activities

mountainwalks.com

w w w . p0870 a n068 o r5158. a m i c info@elsfrares.com journeys.com 106 | r:travel

01608 811183

16:07

Helping make a difference: a unique collection of businesses using Fair Trade supplies

FairlyGoods offers attractive, affordable FairTrade gifts, jewellery, toys and food, ensuring direct and tangible benefits to people throughout the developing world.

Inspirational and ethical.

www.fairlygoods.co.uk 01257 271216

chai chapel fairly traded instruments, organic chai masala, organic incense.

w w w. j u n g l e b e r r y. c o . u k

B

For more information on your local Fair Trade shop, where to source Fair Trade wholesale products or simply for more information on the Fair Trade movement, visit our website

eautiful

fair trade living Eco-homewares Fashion accessories

www.BAFTS.org.uk

Fair trade jewellery Ethical gifts

www.paperhigh.com 0845 257 0239

Ethical & Fair trade journals and photo albums Leather, sari and elephant dung

One World is Enough Beautiful Fair Trade Clothes & Crafts from around the World

Shop online at

adili.com

for the best of ethical fashion

Discover Delicious Divine chocolate! - farmer-owned and Fairtrade

www.divinechocolate.com

Menswear • Ladieswear • Childrenswear Accessories • Hats • Gloves • Scarves Musical Instruments • Handmade Paper Homeware • Ethnic Art Singing Bowls

tel: 0845 257 3026 www.one-world-is-enough.net

Fairtrade shop located in the heart of Soho Ethical Shopping On Your Doorstep Homeware, Gifts, Toys, Stationery, Accessories, Jewellery

Fairtrade tea, coffee, groceries, chocolate, stationery, greeting cards, gifts, jewellery, handbags, toys and much more...

102 Berwick Street, London W1F 0QP 020 7287 8827 • fairshare@tiscali.co.uk

www.fairshare-soho.org

Tel: 01204 528409 • www.fairtradestand.net

Change the world with fair trade gifts Free Delivery on your first order... quote GAMGLL to qualify Christmas decorations handcrafted by Indian producers benefitting from fair pay

www.traidcraftshop.co.uk tel: 0845 330 8900

107 | r:travel

the PERFECT GIFT Wherever you travel, take along the perfect Fairtrade gift, a light weight ball with pump & valve.

It packs almost flat, children of all ages love it; and £2 from every ball sold goes to charity. See our website for details.

www.footballs4fun.org

ergise the spirit? ar your head and re-en cle to y wa r tte be at wh Man versus nature – blue water awaits. r coastline and crystal ula tac ec sp a e er wh Man, ing to be explored.

Welcome to the Isle of hidden coves just begg d an s he ac be d de clu A land of se and rare sea birds. wonderful marine life of y an mp co the joy en Where you can and the freedom of boat, grab some paddles a lf se ur yo d fin is do All you need to to VisitIsleofMan.com, ur FREE brochure, go yo r Fo s. ur yo all is d the islan ng FF10. ll 08457 68 68 68 quoti text ‘Isle’ to 60030 or ca

No through road to

shutterstock.co.uk

Mandalay

110 | r:travel

Burma Boycott |

•

There are many countries and governments throughout the world that have been identified as having poor human rights records. Is it ‘ethical’ to visit any of these places or should we steer clear? Krissy Pentland of responsibletravel.com puts forward the particular case for staying out of Burma

R

esponsible travel is about seeking out authentic experiences, exploring new places and meeting local people. But it’s also about benefitting local people and knowing that your holiday is doing some good.

It can sometimes be very difficult to decide whether it is ‘ethical’ to visit a particular destination.

At responsibletravel.com we market holidays to many countries with poor human rights records including Zimbabwe, China, Libya, Colombia and Indonesia.

We genuinely believe that in most cases, if you choose a tour operator with a strong responsible tourism policy, it is possible for your holiday to benefit local communities. If you take steps to ensure your money reaches local hands rather than governments then your trip will ultimately be doing more good than harm.

Using local craftspeople, hoteliers, guides, farmers and traders, for example, will bring benefits to the people that need it most.

However, there is one country that we have a policy of not marketing as a tourism destination and that is Burma. So why do we feel there is a special case for Burma?

Burma has been under the military rule of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), an abominable military junta that has, despite facing international condemnation and sanctions, ruled since 1988. In 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in Burma’s first multi-party elections for 30 years. The party has however, never been allowed to govern and the democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has had several restrictions placed upon her, including many years of house arrest.

More recently, in October, the world has watched from a distance as thousands of monks in Burma have protested against the military regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly asked tourists not to visit Burma; ‘I still think

111 | r:travel

•| Burma boycott that people should not come to Burma because the bulk of the money from tourism goes straight into the pockets of the generals. And not only that, it’s a form of moral support for them because it makes the military authorities think that the international community is not opposed to the human rights violations which they are committing all the time. They seem to look on the influx of tourists as proof that their actions are accepted by the world.’ (Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, January 1999) It is extremely unusual for tourism to be singled out in this way. Even in Zimbabwe – another desperate case – opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has not said that tourists should boycott the country.

The UK government, the EU, and more recently the US government, are advising against businesses investing in Burma and a number of trade restrictions are in place by the international community.

We also believe that in Burma’s case, there is evidence to show that slave labour was used to create tourist facilities and that local people were removed from these places without adequate consultation or compensation to

make room for hotels and hostels.

It is difficult for local people in Burma to even talk freely to tourists and there can be severe repercussions if they do.

Meeting local people on holiday is often the most enjoyable part of any trip. In Burma, you run the risk of putting those that you talk to in real danger.

In light of the recent uprising, we do believe that there are more effective ways to demonstrate your support for the people of Burma than visiting the country on holiday. Writing to your MP, taking part in marches or events and joining campaigning groups are just some of the ways you can help keep the issues in the headlines. Ultimately, we hope that sooner rather than later, the situation in Burma will change for the better and we can all enjoy this beautiful country and its culture.

There are some people however, that believe that boycotts and embargoes don’t work. When we recently opened up this debate on www. responsibletravelnews.com, an antiboycott forum member from Thailand spoke out. He believes tourism in Burma ‘can educate the travellers that go and

•

shutterstock.co.uk

Visit the forum at www. responsible travelnews. com/forum to share your views on the Burma debate and take part in our poll on whether or not tourists should travel to the country.

the local people they meet – by being responsible tourists, they exchange ideas and that causes change and fosters hope.’ Those who oppose the boycott also argue that the military does not need funds from the West, and would rather avoid Western onlookers who might witness the brutalities of their regime.

Different views and opinions will exist on whether, as tourists, we should be visiting countries with poor human rights records.

The arguments are complex and there is certainly no right or wrong answer to these tough decisions. You should consider whether you’re likely to enjoy the trip and have a clear conscience afterwards.

Ask yourself whether your holiday will benefit local people. You might also want to consider the wider message you are sending out if you do decide to visit a particular destination. For some people, this is not a factor in choosing a holiday. For others, however, the political implications of being seen to offer approval to a certain destination, are a real issue. Ultimately, it is down to each of us as individuals to decide how we feel – a freedom we are lucky enough to enjoy.

112 | r:travel

•| A tribute to Anita Roddick

A force for good

Justin Francis, founder and managing director of responsibletravel.com pays tribute to his friend and inspiration: Dame Anita Roddick (above)

A

nita Roddick was a truly remarkable person, and, other than my family and girlfriend, the single biggest influence on my life. She had an enormous passion for life, which she lived with boundless energy. She was very funny and had the knack of looking at life and business from a different angle to the rest of us.

I first met Anita in 1997 when I joined The Body Shop to help market the ‘values’ of the company. She believed passionately in business being a force for good. For her it was profits and principles and the company’s financial goals and social and environmental ones were the same.

Anita will be remembered as an entrepreneur, an innovator and an activist.

And while the world was focussed on aid, Anita believed in trade as a way to help people out of poverty. She invented and tirelessly promoted her community trade programme, which involved ingredients being sourced from communities in need under fair trade conditions. Decades later we are finally seeing mainstream businesses stocking fair trade goods.

She fought hard for her beliefs, starting with animal rights and a ten-year campaign to stop the animal testing of cosmetics. However it seemed to me that her greatest passion became human rights and women’s issues. The murder of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian

junta came as a great blow to her, and she fought side by side with the Ogoni people in their campaign against Shell’s social and environmental record on their land.

The idea that businesses should campaign was simple to Anita – if you believed in something you fought for it.

She always said you shouldn’t leave your values at the door when you come to work. Looking back now, it’s hard to remember just how radical her views on business were when she started out in 1976.

She was a visionary, and every person who met her was infected with her personality, beliefs and sheer enthusiasm. She deserves to be remembered as somebody who truly transformed the way in which business sees itself.

But she was also an exceptionally warm and supportive friend. When I told her I was leaving The Body Shop to set up my own company her first question was, ‘How can I help?’ Anita and Gordon invested in responsibletravel.com but really she gave me far more than just the cash – it was her vision and spirit that we’ve been following these past six years and will continue to follow.

I last saw Anita about six weeks before she died when she invited my girlfriend Heidi and I, together with three other like-minded couples, over to her house for the weekend. Anita cooked and served the tea, and as always was the centre of every conversation. When I asked her about any travelling she might be doing she explained that she was meeting L’Oreal, whom she sold The Body Shop to last year, to persuade them to use more community trade ingredients in their products – something that due to their scale would have transformed the lives of many communities. Anita remained an activist and L’Oreal bought into that and her ideas – a Trojan horse is how she described herself.

When my father died suddenly while I was working at The Body Shop, Anita wrote me a card, which I still have. She said life was like an onion, layer upon layer of memories, impressions and new ideas left with the people we’ve met. I’d like to think of Anita as the biggest onion in the world.

She leaves an enormous hole and will be greatly missed by so many people.

114 | r:travel

•

A word from your sponsor. idays n Hol ble i g r i V onsi Resp Awards sm Touri iation with m

co oc in ass ibletravel. ns s o e p s im re The T l Market Trave agazine ld r o W al M raphic Geog

@r oqntc ronmrnqr ne sghr xd`qÓr Qdronmrhakd Sntqhrl @v`qcr vd+ khjd sgd l`mx hmchuhct`kr `mc bnlo`mhdr qdbnfmhrdc enq sgdhq deenqsr+ `qd bnmshmt`kkx rsqhuhmf sn l`jd ntq atrhmdrr lnqd rtrs`hm`akd enq ` fqddmdq+ bkd`mdq etstqdRn nm adg`ke ne Uhqfhm Gnkhc`xr `mc sgd dmuhqnmldms+ bnmfq`stk`shnmr sn sgd vhmmdqr- Sgqntfg xntq deenqsr sgd vgnkd vnqkc fdsr sn qd`o sgd qdv`qcrSn Ü mc nts lnqd `ants ntq bnllhsldms sn ` lnqd rtrs`hm`akd etstqd uhrhs uhqfhmgnkhc`xr-bnl.qdronmrhakd