World Expedition - Index

World Expedition - booklet - Index

responsible travel at work – examples from the field
peru & bolivia
We have been practicing responsible tourism since we began
operating in Peru over 25 years ago and it continues to be an
integral consideration from the planning to the implementation of all
of our adventures in South America.
Fundamental to our philosophy are the concepts of respect and
responsibility. That is, respect and responsibility for the environment
and all the people we work with and come into contact with.
We endeavor to be model employers, paying all our staff above
award wages, as well as providing a wide-reaching system of
support and financial assistance, which extends to all camp-hands,
porters and their families in the case of medical emergencies.
On the trail we insist that our camp-staff and porters effectively
have the same services as our travellers, including having their own
sleeping tents which is contrary to many companies who make
their staff and porters sleep in the cook and dining tents which
often have no floors. We provide nutritious food and cooking
facilities for our porters so they can be independent of the camp
regimes as they often prefer to eat and go to sleep much earlier
than our travellers, in anticipation of an early start to prepare
breakfast for our group. We provide proper vehicles to take our staff
to and from the trail head rather than the open trucks so often used
by other companies. We adhere strictly to all guidelines regarding
the weight of porters loads (no porter ever carries more than 20kgs).
We have also introduced a system of interest-free loans for our
camp staff and porters, paid back in small installments. Over the
years, this scheme has lent in total over $200,000 to enable scores
of local people to buy land, work vehicles, materials to build houses
and set up small businesses.