World Expedition - Index

World Expedition - booklet - Index

We carefully consider the many requests we receive for
donations to local community and school projects. We are
one of the main donors for the Ollantaytambo Medical
Centre which provides medical services to a huge area
near the Sacred Valley where the majority of people who
work in the adventure travel industry live.
We have worked on innumerable large and small projects
over the years. Not only do we provide financial support,
we also engage in active collaboration; we meet with
members of local communities to discuss needs and
ways to execute projects, as well as detailed interactive
planning. We maintain contact for the duration of the
project and maintain an ongoing interest.
Many of our staff have worked with us for over 20 years.
We have continued staff training in the form of regular
work shops and training sessions. Our guides are all
Peruvian who facilitate constant dialogue regarding local
life and customs.
Our local operations are a fully licensed and registered
Peruvian company and we consider it very important that
we put money into the economy through the payment of
taxes. Companies which require their travellers to bring
cash for local payments are by-passing the tax system.
For us, responsible tourism is providing a safe and
professional service to our travellers. Local transport often
means the use of substandard vehicles and overloading
the already stretched local bus services. Instead, we
provide appropriate and safe private transportation.
Having worked in Peru
for over 25 years, we
are very conscious of
changes accompanying
globalization and increased tourism and the often
devastating effects on the environment. Our main
administrative office is totally paper free.
We have a zero litter policy but several years ago decided
to take things further by introducing a unique and
innovative system to reduce waste. Until relatively recently
plastic bottles were virtually unknown in Peru. Nowadays
drinking water and most soft drinks are sold in nonreturnable
plastic bottles. There exists virtually no
infrastructure or facilities for recycling plastic. Plastic
bottles at best end up in landfill but vast quantities are
washed away with other rubbish into the rivers. Although
we actively support annual clean-up initiatives we feel
that a far better way to address this increasingly serious
problem is to drastically reduce the number of plastic
bottles that our travellers use during their stay in Peru.
For the past five years, we have been successfully
operating a system which we estimate, to date, has
saved about 100,000 plastic bottles from being used and
thrown away.
We have invested in refillable water dispensers which we
have installed in the hotels we use in Cusco and the
Sacred Valley. Our staff ensure that these water
dispensers always have a supply of fresh drinking water.
9