Developing tourism that benefits local communities and conserves the natural environment

"There is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole - women and men alike - than the one which involves women as central players." 

(Kofi Annan, 7th UN Secretary General)

Tourism, if unplanned, can destroy as well as create. Environmental conservation and economic development can be mutually conflicting. Delivering benefits to the host community is not always compatible with investors' need for profit.

On the other hand, tourism can provide ways out of poverty, help people develop transferable skills, stimulate social cohesion and aid environmental conservation, while at the same time delivering profitable businesses.

We help balance these apparently conflicting pressures to ensure tourism becomes a force for good.

For us responsible tourism is a must, not an option. It is a principle embedded in everything we do.

We apply market-driven principles and an understanding of the international tourism value chain to the development of business opportunities at a community level. We integrate the imperative for local empowerment with the need to develop long-term sustainable businesses. And we address ways in which skills can be transferred from external experts to a local successor generation.

We look forward to the day when all tourism will be responsible - when it will no longer be necessary to qualify tourism as responsible; when it would simply be wrong to contemplate any other type of tourism. 

Examples of Our Work ..