For us, Responsible Tourism means protecting the environment, respecting local culture, making ethical choices, and being good members of our community. As a responsible travel company, we take the recommendations in the Cape Town Declaration and the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics to heart, and have integrated them into our core operations. We are serious about promoting responsible travel in Peru.
Being a responsible tourism operator starts at home. That means that our baseline operations centre around the wellbeing of our staff, including the guides, porters, cooks and muleteers that we work with.
From day 1, we’ve been committed to providing work to the people whose communities we trek through on our off-the-beaten-track routes, as porters and muleteers.
We have always believed that we need to do more than simply operate responsibly. That’s why we donate $20 per passenger to community development projects.
In 2011, three years after implementing an internal sustainability program, including a Sustainability Policy, independent evaluations of our environmental policies on the trail, and formal staff training in sustainable best practices, we decided to put our money where our mouth is and seek independent verification from the Rainforest Alliance . We were the first trekking agency in Cusco to seek this.
The Rainforest Alliance verification program consists of a three-part process, including training in areas where improvements can be made. Following their guidelines and recommendations, we continue to make improvements to keep on top of our sustainability game.
We are proud that we’ve been able to keep our treks affordable even while continually taking our commitment to sustainability and responsible tourism to the next level, ensuring that our Andean adventures remain accessible to the eco-minded traveler.
Part of our sustainable tourism practices is to“leave no trace”. In addition to our policy of packing out all trash on the trail, we also organize up to 12 Clean Up Treks per year. These special trips follow our normal trekking routes, but give our trekkers the chance to give back while on holiday, and collect the trash left behind by other trekkers and tour agencies.