Here at Odyssey World, we are passionate about the world we live in and our impact on the environment. Read more on our policy for economic, environmental and social responsibility.
And if you’d like to see how your getaway benefits local communities in more depth, our sustainability campaign – Be There – seeks not only to inform our clients of the many uplifting initiatives in place, but to remind ourselves that small changes can make a big difference!
Economic Responsibility
By following the guidelines below, we help to ensure that a large percentage of the revenue from our holidays goes straight into the local community of the destinations we feature:
As the majority of our tours are tailor made, we only work with local suppliers who in turn only use local guides and drivers. We work hard to ensure that the guidelines we set in place are being adhered to at all times by our local tour operators.
Wherever possible we work with small, locally owned and/or family-run hotels and lodges. Our tours include regular stops at locally owned cafés, restaurants and markets to contribute to local revenue. We also offer the chance for our clients to stay with locals in villages, desert camps and with indigenous tribes in the rainforest.
Environmental Responsibility
We choose our tours carefully in order to ensure they are not impacting the environment negatively through excessive tourism or environmental negligence, avoiding large scale hotel development and promoting small eco-lodges and small group sizes appropriate for the area.
In conjunction with our ground handlers in each destination we research local organisations in the areas we send clients who are helping the environment through projects such as wildlife conservation, reforestation or protecting National Parks, Marine life etc. so that tourism in the area is being managed and benefiting the surrounding environment.
We send our clients ‘Code of Conduct’ information prior to travel, advising them of the cultural and environmental impacts of their activities, such as conserving electricity and water at their destinations, not to endorse selling of animal or coral souvenirs, to keep to marked trails etc. As part of the code we advise on how to respect the local environment to help preserve it for future generations
We actively encourage our clients to offset their emissions through the Reduce my Footprint scheme, created by the travel industry to mitigate the effects of travel on climate change. Every day the normal activities of our lives have a direct impact on the volumes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and other “greenhouse gases” released into the atmosphere. Our personal contribution to these emissions is often referred to as our “carbon footprint”. The Reduce My Footprint website provides you with a way to understand the impacts we all have, and also to calculate the CO2 emissions created by your travel plans. This provides the basis for you to contribute toward offsetting these CO2 emissions through various projects throughout the world.
Social Responsibility
We have worked closely with our ground operators for years and think of them as family, not only do we ensure a brilliant wage, often they have a majority share or even own the lodges or tour companies themselves. Thus making sure money from our tours goes directly to the local people, investing the wealth that they receive from our partnership back in to the community, in whichever way they choose.
We plan tours in a way which maximizes the opportunity for clients to meet local people and learn about the local culture in a rewarding and authentic way.
We send our clients a checklist of do’s and don’ts when visiting the countries we feature such as respecting local cultures in both dress and behaviour, asking permission to take photos of local people, not to buy any animal products or take any coral/shells away with them, and encourage clients to learn a few words of the local language.
We hope to continue finding the right balance so together, we can Be There.
