Sustainable Travel

Wilderness Scotland named as top UK tour operator in prestigious worldwide rankings

A pioneering adventure travel company from Edinburgh has broken new ground by becoming the first Scottish company to be included in National Geographic Adventure Magazine’s definitive list of the ‘Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth’, which was released this week.

Wilderness Scotland, specialists in adventure holidays in the remote regions of Scotland, has been rated as the 16th best adventure travel company in the world, making it the highest ranked adventure travel company in the whole of the UK. And as a member of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO), all of its holidays offer 100% financial protection.

The independently-owned company, which operates across the Highlands and Islands, outscored many larger and well-established companies in the rankings, which focuses on five key factors: spirit of adventure, sustainability, quality of service, education & client satisfaction.

Wilderness Scotland director Stevie Christie commented: “We are extremely proud to be ranked so highly in what is considered to be the world’s definitive list of the best adventure travel companies. We are a small company, passionate about Scotland and adventure travel, so it is very satisfying to be recognised at the highest level and to be ranked so highly against many more established peers. In particular, we were delighted to score 100% for client satisfaction.”

Philip Riddle, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, added: “I am delighted to hear about this result for Wilderness Scotland and offer them congratulations on this well-deserved recognition”.

In compiling its list, National Geographic Adventure Magazine conducted a survey of hundreds of companies across the globe with assistance from organisations including Sustainable Travel International and The Adventure Travel Trade Association. The top 200 companies were then vetted by an elite team of adventure editors and travel experts, who trawled over company figures and spoke to clients who had travelled with each company to ensure that the final results were informed and comprehensive.

Wilderness Scotland emerged as a front-runner in the rankings with a total score of 94.9%. With this latest accolade, the future of Wilderness Scotland is looking greener than ever. Co-founder Paul Easto said:

“Scotland is one of the world’s best adventure destinations and we hope that with many UK residents choosing to stay at home this year, many more people can discover its limitless opportunities for adventure. We look forward to welcoming many clients to Scotland this year and providing them with a genuinely world-class adventure travel experience.”

Posted by BrianM at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

LoyaltyMatch is pleased to announce a partnership with nonprofit organization Sustainable Travel International™. Sustainable Travel is commited to promoting responsible travel and ecotourism, supporting sustainable development, and helping travelers and travel providers protect the cultures and environments they visit.

Two communities have been created at LoyaltyMatch.com. The first group is focused on Carbon Offsetting. The group provides LoyaltyMatch members with the opportunity to convert their loyalty points or miles to cash and use the cash to buy carbon credits through the Sustainable Travel portal.

The second group supports the Travelers Giving Back™ program, which is focused on attracting financial and in-kind support for sustainable development-oriented projects that help the environment and local people, and support community self-reliance. LoyaltyMatch members can convert their loyalty points or miles to cash and use the cash to support over 500 projects around the globe.

Lastly, the upside of the program is all cash donations receive a tax receipt. A simple way to use your points and miles for a number of great causes. Sustainable Travel International and LoyaltyMatch.com, working together to "Leave the world a better place™".

Posted by BrianM at 5:20 PM | Permalink

The visionary, small ship travel company, Ecoventura, announces that one of its fleet of four superior-class motor yachts now sports a new sustainability technology heretofore applied only to small private boats.

Ecoventura’s M/Y ERIC becomes the first hybrid energy tour boat in the Galapagos following a $100,000 installation of 40 solar panels and two wind turbines on the upper deck. The work that began in October 2008 also included replacing canvas awnings with a hard fiberglass top for structural support. The goal is for the solar panels and wind powered generators to provide enough power to initially support approximately 17 percent of the energy formerly produced by two carbon fuel-based generators. This project was financed through a partnership with Toyota, a supporter of the World Wildlife Fund. The target goal is to have full fleet implementation by 2011.

"We want to give our passengers the assurance that Ecoventura has taken every measure to ensure that they enjoy a safe, thrilling adventure without harming the unique wildlife or the fragile environment of the Islands. We all live in this world and breath the same air; the least we can do is try to preserve it for our children and the generations to come,” says Santiago Dunn, president and owner of Ecoventura.

“The Galapagos Islands are a fragile and threatened ecosystem. Ecoventura continues to break new ground in responsible tourism in the Galapagos with its new hybrid energy technology. It is the hope that other cruise and tour companies will see the successful results and follow suit,” Dunn says. In summer 2007, UNESCO put the Galapagos on its World Heritage sites risk list, citing alien species and pollution from tourists and immigrants as key issues.

Toyota’s involvement with the Galapagos Islands began in 2001 when the company partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to help conserve the islands’ unique ecosystem. Toyota has since supported and/or funded many projects and programs in the Galapagos Islands. These include a redesign of the main fuel-handling facility on Baltra, renewable- energy teacher education workshops, oil and municipal recycling programs and the refitting of Ecoventura’s expedition touring yacht, M/Y Eric with solar panels and wind turbines. Community education and outreach have been key components of all projects.

About Ecoventura: Ecoventura is a family-owned company based in Guayaquil, Ecuador, with sales offices in Quito and Miami. In operation since 1990, the cruise company transports 4,000+ passengers annually aboard a fleet of three expedition vessels; identical, superior first-class 20-passenger motor yachts with 10 double cabins. The company also operates the Sky Dancer, a 16-passenger dedicated dive live-aboard offering 7-night weekly itineraries visiting the northern islands of Wolf and Darwin. All of its vessels have been purposefully retrofitted to meet or exceed the highest possible environmental standards.

To reserve a cabin or private charter, or to receive a copy of Ecoventura’s 2009 catalog please call toll-free 1.800.644.7972, or e-mail info@galapagosnetwork.com. To access current rates, schedules and itineraries you can log onto www.ecoventura.com.

Posted by BrianM at 9:51 AM | Permalink

Over 225 delegates attended the 2008 Travelers’ Philanthropy Conference held in Arusha, Tanzania, making it the largest and most diverse conference ever held on this theme.
The 3-day conference, at which Nobel Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder and leader of Kenya’s Green Belt Movement, gave the opening keynote address, also marked the first time that travelers’ philanthropy had been addressed in Africa.

Travelers’ philanthropy is a relatively new concept, but it is rapidly growing into a worldwide movement and becoming part of the definition of responsible travel. At its core, travelers’ philanthropy is about tourism businesses and travelers ‘giving back’ to tourism destinations by providing financial support, expertise, and material contributions to local projects and community initiatives. Tourism frequently takes place in biodiversity and culturally rich but economically poor regions of the world.

“We are thrilled with the results of the conference. Not only did more delegates attend than we had expected, but the conference is also generating a number of new educational materials that will help to strengthen travelers’ philanthropy initiatives,” says Martha Honey, Co-Director of the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD) that organized the conference and runs the Travelers’ Philanthropy Program. “These materials will help provide, for the first time, the tools to help tourism businesses and host communities initiate and effectively carry out travelers’ philanthropy projects.”

In the wake of the conference, CESD plans to:

• Produce a new handbook (“How to Create a Travelers’ Philanthropy Program”) based on a ‘short course’ given at the conference. This handbook, which is being produced together with the Basecamp Foundation, will be launched in March at the ITB Berlin, the world’s major travel show.
• Create a CD with the conference proceedings, presentations, photos, and other documents, as well as post them online.
• Promote and distribute the first ever documentary on travelers’ philanthropy (“Giving Time, Talent, and Treasure”) which was premiered at the conference.
• Launch a new discussion board and blog for conference participants and others interested in travelers’ philanthropy.
• Expand the Experts Bureau to include more professionals who can work with companies, community organizations, NGOs, and others to develop travelers’ philanthropy projects.
• Develop a list of ‘best practices’ for both tourism businesses and travelers involved in supporting projects in the host communities.
• Incorporate additional companies and their travelers’ philanthropy projects into the Travelers’ Philanthropy website which has the capacity to receive online, tax deductible donations.

Participants to the conference, which was held December 3-5, 2008 at the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge, came from over 20 countries. Nearly half received full or partial scholarships to attend, thanks to funds provided by the Ford Foundation, USAID, the United Nations Foundation, and the United States Institute for Peace.

“The conference provided an important opportunity for the east African tourism industry and local community-based enterprises to engage with developments related to responsible and sustainable forms of tourism, with roughly half of all participants coming from Kenya and Tanzania,” says Fred Nelson, the lead local organizer for the conference.

The conference included 18 workshops on topics such as serving local development priorities through travelers’ philanthropy; the responsibility and response of the travel industry to climate change; moving travelers’ philanthropy from a charity model to social empowerment and entrepreneurship; and bad practices and best practices for engaging travelers.

In addition, the conference examined several issues critical to Africa, including the failure of many tourism businesses to adequately address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At the conference, several delegates pledged that their companies would, within the next year, develop HIV/AIDS policies and programs for staff and visitor education, as well as initiate travelers’ philanthropy projects to support HIV/AIDS clinics, orphanages, education and other types of programs in the host communities.

In his keynote address at the conference, Dr. David Western, founder of the Africa Conservation Centre and former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, described travelers’ philanthropy as an effort to “martial the well intentioned impulses of the traveler” to support needs in the local community. He said it derives from the concept of the Good Samaritan, “the wayfarer who helped even those who he did not know.” He added that “Africa wants trade, not aid,” and “tourism represents the largest transfer of wealth from the North to the South.”

The conference was endorsed and supported by a wide range of sponsors. These include 31 companies, organizations, and development agencies. In addition to CESD, the leading partners in organizing the conference were the Honeyguide Foundation in Tanzania, Basecamp Foundation in Kenya, and the African Safari Lodge Foundation in South Africa.

For more information, please visit www.ecotourismcesd.org.

Posted by BrianM at 4:32 PM | Permalink