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Responsible travel guidelines

Asia Style Travel is a strong advocate of responsible travel. We are fully committed to conserving natural resources, protecting local cultural heritage and making positive impacts in the communities with which we come into contact. We ensure our tours are of low impact on natural resources, respectful and observant of local customs and supportive of local economies. Our staff have led groups on medical treks in remote mountains and ethnic minority communities, and coordinated the building of schools, kindergartens, wells, toilets and bridges for disadvantaged regions.

Although the very basis of our ground operations lends itself to the ethos of responsible tourism, this policy re-iterates our commitment to:

• using locally owned hotels
• using locally owned hotels
• using locally owned ground agents
• using local guides and drivers
• promoting community tourism projects from homestays to craft shops
• supporting charities that work within the destinations that we travel to

Our clients

• Whilst we recognise that a vital element of any holiday is relaxation, we do try to encourage our clients to be aware of their impact in their destination. For each booking, we provide notes on the cultural sensitivities of the chosen destination and our local guides brief our clients upon their arrival. We hope this will serve not only to ensure the sustainability of our destinations, but also to improve the quality of the experience overall.

• Ethical considerations are also part of our research and development process and we encourage feedback on our practices. Clients are asked to comment and make suggestions on our responsible practices when completing the post-trip questionnaire they receive when travelling with us. In addition to this, as well as visiting destination-based initiatives whilst on their educational trips, our country specialists are encouraged to help Asia Style Travel to continually improve its responsible travel initiatives.

Destinations

• We are committed to supporting a wide number of responsible and ethical initiatives including environmental projects, community tourism projects and education programmes. We encourage our clients to visit many of these initiatives such as wildlife sanctuaries, local schools, orphanages and co-operatives.

• We are able to recommend a variety of homestays in many different countries for those clients who are interested. Not only does the money from homestays directly benefit the local community, but clients also gain an authentic insight into local culture.

• Through client specific notes in our tailor-made itineraries, we continue to actively recommend restaurants, shops and other local businesses so that the community is directly benefited. Most of these have been discovered by our country specialists and include craft shops that ensure tourist money is fed back to the individuals who produce the crafts, and restaurants which train local street children.

• We promote environmentally friendly tours and accommodation in a number of destinations.

Our ground agents

• We prefer, where possible, to use smaller, locally owned ground agents. Not only does this ensure that it is the host community who are managing and benefiting from the local tourist industry, but we also believe that our clients will have a better trip as local agents have a much more intimate knowledge of the region.

• For the same reasons as above, we always use local guides and drivers. This not only provides crucial employment and income for the local community, but also increases the authenticity of the client’s trip.

• We favour ground agents who have an awareness of responsible tourism policies and strong environmental commitment. Responsible practice is one of the principle criteria during the selection of new suppliers, and ethical initiatives form a fundamental element in our ground arrangements.

• In addition to feedback from country specialist visits, all our ground agents are asked to keep us updated on their own responsible tourism practices as well as potential community tourism projects, local charities and eco-accommodation that we can recommend to our clients.

• Clients are asked to report on the behaviour and awareness of our agents and local guides once they have returned home from their trip.

Accommodation

• We always try to favour small locally owned hotels over large international chains. We work closely with our local ground agents to source more small guesthouses, B&Bs, boutique hotels and eco-friendly lodges. This ensures that as much revenue as possible remains in the host country as well as providing an experience with more genuine character for our clients

• We always prefer to use hotels which have environmental policies in place regarding reuse of towels and sheets, electricity and water usage.

• Where available we recommend our clients stay in ethically responsible accommodation, such as eco-lodges that aim to preserve the beauty of natural surroundings.

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