Bhutan trekking holiday, tailor made

Planet

We are committed to running our business and tours in a way that is environmentally, culturally and socially responsible. We encourage our guests and suppliers to work with us to travel and operate in a way that conserves and protects the areas we visit and bring positive benefits to local communities. We are therefore committed to continual improvement in our environmental performance, preventing pollution and minimising our effects through a complete programme of annual reviews of our expeditions and try to make our activities environmentally and socially positive.

Our local agent does this in a number of ways including:


Environment
Waste: As an environmental friendly country, we have exemplary regulations for waste disposal and management. We ensure that all the waste that we generate is disposed off as per environmental regulations and in keeping with best practices. In the first place, we encourage the use of as much bio-degradable or renewable materials as possible for packaging, cooking, toiletries etc.

Energy saving: Energy saving is not only important from environmental protection purposes but it is equally important to reduce overheads. We promote the use of energy efficient devices in all its trips- be it for travel, lighting, cooking or accommodation, wherever possible.

Water saving: While Bhutan is a country rich in clean mountain springs, practical experiences in urban centres show that water is fast becoming a scarce resource. As such we ensure that our guests are advised to be very judicial in the use of water be it in the camps while trekking or in the towns in hotels and restaurants. Also many hotels have policies designed to promote the judicial use of water.

Advising travellers to reduce impact: Bhutan has rich and unique tradition and culture, which we value so dearly as a crucial pillar of Gross National Happiness. It is the government’s desire that while we promote tourism, we do not suffer the consequences of the impact of mass tourism on our culture and environment. We have strict government directives in this regard, and we ensure that our guests are given an orientation on this on the day of their arrival in the country. For example tourists who attend a religious festival are not allowed to wear shorts, caps or sun glasses. They are also discouraged from creating intimate scenes in public places, especially where rural folks gather.

Conservation & education: Visit to places of historical, cultural and environmental significance is a part of our travel itineraries. Besides, we also promote visits to less exposed rural villages and ensure that our guests enjoy the experience of a farm house dinner and a traditional stone bath. Visits to nature conservation parks and hikes along ancient trials form a part of this travel itinerary.

Office practice: We believe in small being beautiful. As such we encourage the optimal use of space and equipment. Sharing of resources in a pool, use of energy saving devices, corresponding through emails, we do encourage in reducing using cars for office work all time and that is mainly to reduce pollution and save everything, also reducing printing unless highly inevitable are some of our office practices.

Our commitment to our environmental policy extends to our working environment and all staff recycle and make business decisions with an ethical dimension such as using public transport and maximising the use of email. We are committed to running a business that has as little environmental impact as possible. We ceased having paper brochures printed in 2008.

People

Community
Local staff: All our employees, permanent or hired, are local Bhutanese people and their selection based on experience, training and academic qualifications. We treat our employees on no terms and conditions less favourable than those specified by the government’s labour laws with regard to wages, occupational health and safety, working hours etc.

Local purchasing policy: While it is our sincere endeavour to try and promote the use of as much local materials as possible, we cannot avoid the use of foreign goods as Bhutan is largely an import dependent country. But wherever we have the option, we always encourage the use of locally produced, energy efficient and renewable goods.

Charity donations: Through its travel business we always try to facilitate contributions to charity. We have facilitated contributions from our clients in the field of child care at the national referral hospital as well as educations materials to some schools in Bhutan. As we grow, it would be one of our long term objectives to make meaningful contributions to the society, both from ourselves, and through interested clients.

Community projects: We have been promoting the concept of textile tourism all these years. We have customized tour packages for clients interested in traditional Bhutanese weaving/textiles. This has really helped promote the products of rural Bhutanese engaged with traditional designing, vegetable dyeing and weaving. For example, we have been able to promote raw silk products from a rural Bhutanese village called Radhi in Eastern Bhutan.