A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO
“Much of our sustainability focus during 2023 was to continue delivering high quality travel services while increasing the positive impacts of those services on local communities and minimising the negative ones on the environment, wherever possible. We do this by putting into practice our six principles (read on for more information about these).
Asian Trails is acutely aware that in order to become a more sustainable travel company, it is the core business of developing, selling and operating travel itineraries that we need to focus our sustainability approach on.
We want to change negative perceptions of travelling more sustainably as a more
expensive or a lower quality experience. In this regard, our teams in all of our destinations have been identifying and promoting good value sustainable travel experiences that appeal to mainstream travellers.
Sustainable travel is not a niche or a type of product, it is a way of travelling that we want to help make more widespread in 2024.”
Laurent Kuenzle Group Chief Executive Officer
Responsible Travel Management
Our Responsible Travel Team
Responsible Travel in Practice: Our ESTEEM principles
Travelife for Tour Operators
Responsible Travel Training and Capacity Building
Our Refillable Water Bottles Initiative
Staff Involvement in Sustainability
Looking Ahead to 2024
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Responsible Travel Management
Asian Trails is determined to make sustainability an essential part of our company culture. This is a long-term objective which involves clear internal processes and close collaboration with external partners on sustainability issues. Every employee has specific responsibilities that contribute to the progress of the company’s sustainability agenda. In addition, specific employees – including one Group Sustainability Manager and eight Country Sustainability Coordinators – are assigned greater responsibilities to lead and direct the process by providing information and inspiration to the rest of the team.
Our Responsible Travel Team
Group Sustainability Manager
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Ameer Virani is our Group Sustainability Manager. His role is to develop and implement our company-wide sustainability strategy, in close collaboration with team members, and to quantifiably measure progress.
Country Sustainability Coordinators
Our Country Sustainability Coordinators are our destinationspecific sustainability experts. They are actively involved in the development of the company’s sustainability plan and responsible for ensuring it is implemented successfully, in line with local conditions. They come from a wide range of departments, bringing a breadth and depth of knowledge to the company’s sustainability management team.
Responsible Travel Management Our Responsible Travel Team 1 2
Diego Santacroce Product Manager
CAMBODIA
Saw Win Operations Manager
Surapon Vutivakinsakul Product Manager
Hanh Le Product Manager
Bounthavy Hansaya Senior Product Officer
MYANMAR
Justin Culkin Business Development Manager
CHINA & HONG KONG
Mattia Lorusso Business Development Manager
INDONESIA
Amandine Lutmann Product Manager
MALAYSIA & SINGAPORE
THAILAND
VIETNAM LAOS
Responsible Travel in Practice: Our ESTEEM principles
Asian Trails aims to maximise the positive impacts of tourism by putting into practice our six ESTEEM principles. These values provide us with a clear framework to holistically incorporate more sustainable travel into our tours and excursions. These principles guide our product development, sales and operations teams in crafting, selling and delivering more sustainable travel itineraries.
Travelife for Tour Operators
Travelife is a leading training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies committed to sustainability. By 2023, all our countries had renewed their ‘Partner’ status and in 2024 they will look ahead to the next renewal phase. The certification and renewal processes are very rigorous and cover the following main themes:
Sustainability management; Supply chain partners – accommodation, transport, activities; Tour guides; Destination management; Sustainability communication.
Responsible Travel in Practice Travelife for Tour Operators 3 4
Support small communities and the environment by dining at locally owned eateries with locally sourced food on the menu. Choose environmentallyfriendly accommodation that benefits host communities through revenue raising. Travel in vehicles with lowcarbon emissions, such as electric cars and trains, and use shared public transport services. Participate in cultural learning activities that engage with and support local people. Contribute to grassroots development by visiting community-based tourism projects. Visit sites that invest in communities and the environment, such as vocational training restaurants and ethical animal sanctuaries.
Responsible Travel Training and Capacity Building
Staff Training
We realise that in order to achieve our long-term objective of making the travel products we sell more sustainable, the active engagement of our staff is necessary. In this light, our Group Sustainability Manager conducts practical monthly online training sessions on various topics. Below are some of the topics covered in 2023:
Selling more sustainable products;
Marketing sustainability;
Refillable Water Bottles Initiative;
Organising meaningful and impactful CSR activities;
Addressing the plastic problem;
Sustainable travel beyond Asian Trails.
Child Protection Training
More than 100 of our full-time team members in Cambodia and Thailand took part in a half-day interactive training session run by our partners ChildSafe on child protection in tourism. The remainder of our full-time staff will be trained in 2024.
Tour Guide Training
Our tour guides are instrumental in supporting travellers to make sustainable travel decisions once they are on the ground in our destinations. To support our guides to play this important facilitator role, we organise annual training sessions for them covering the following areas and more:
An introduction to sustainable travel;
Destination-specific recommendations to help travellers make sustainable choices; Supporting implementation of our Refillable Water Bottles Initiative; Child protection in tourism.
Responsible Travel Training and Capacity Building Responsible Travel Training and Capacity Building 5 6
Cambodia
Indonesia
Laos
Thailand
USD 1,200 Terra Clear
USD 430 #tide
USD 1,189 Keep Vietnam Clean
Our Refillable Water Bottles Initiative
At Asian Trails we acknowledge that the activities we organise can have negative impacts on the environment and we need to take steps to minimise these as much as possible.
Regarding single-use plastic waste, we are committed to minimising our contribution by replacing single-use plastic water bottles with refillable bottles wherever this is feasible.
In 2020, we committed to a donation of USD$1 from each refillable water bottle in a traveller’s itinerary to a local plastic reduction/ recycling or clean water project.
In the table is an overview of the amount and beneficiaries of donations from countries where this initiative has been successfully implemented since it was first launched.
Our Refillable Water Bottles Initiative Our Refillable Water Bottles Initiative 5 6
DISCOVER MORE
Vietnam Asian Trails Unit Amount Donated
USD 4,050 Water For Cambodia
USD 3,719 Sungai Watch
Staff Involvement in Sustainability
Our staff are an integral part of the company’s drive to be sustainable and we endeavour to involve all of our teams in CSR activities on the ground. The purpose is to promote an ethos of ‘citizenship’ by providing opportunities for team members to make a difference to their local community and environment. Such opportunities also help our team members learn new things and develop new skills. Below are some examples of social and environmental CSR activities organised by our offices in 2023:
Cambodia
Supporting Phnom Penh’s Cyclo Drivers
In partnership with Phnom Penh’s KVL Hotel and the Cyclo Conservation and Careers Association (CCCA), Asian Trails’ Cambodia team organised a training workshop for cyclo drivers to enhance their livelihood and boost support for this dwindling community.
In partnership with Bali Blue Harmony (BBH), a wellestablished NGO dedicated to marine conservation, Asian Trails’ team in Indonesia created steel ‘reef stars’ and placed them underwater in a programme to help restore delicate coral ecosystems in the sea off Bali.
Planting Trees at a School in Vientiane
Asian Trails’ staff planted trees and donated sand blocks and cement to a village school in Vientiane, helping to improve the school’s environment and provide a more inspiring backdrop for the children to study and play.
Asian Trails’ team in Thailand collaborated with a community in Koh Samui to help protect the surrounding environment while supporting local tourism development. The day involved planting coconut trees near a beach to prevent soil erosion, followed by donations of food and supplies to monks.
Staff Involvement in Sustainability Staff Involvement in Sustainability 7 8
Indonesia
Coral Restoration in Bali
Laos
Thailand
READ MORE READ MORE READ MORE READ MORE
Community-based Tourism in Koh Samui
Looking Ahead to 2024
Our main focus in 2024 will be to continue making sustainable travel more mainstream and building the capacity of our team members to facilitate this. We will be introducing the following new initiatives to help meet these objectives:
Explore guides
Country-specific guides showcasing our top travel products that offer good value and positive impacts.
Hotel sustainability assessments
In collaboration with industry partners, we will conduct detailed evaluations to identify our most sustainable accommodation suppliers.
Calculating carbon emissions
We will start to measure the carbon emissions from all our offices and top-selling tours to identify areas for improvement.
LEARN MORE ABOUT RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL AT ASIAN TRAILS
Looking Ahead to 2024 Looking Ahead to 2024 9 10
ASIAN TRAILS LTD (HEAD OFFICE)
183, 12th Floor, Regent House, Rajdamri Road, Lumpini, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand
Email: marketing@asiantrails.org
Website: www.asiantrails.travel
