Gujarat culture and textile tour, Kutch

Planet

1 We encourage long stays in a single destination or area reducing emissions from travel, and water usage generated by laundry from frequent changes of accommodation.

2. We encourage travel by train over plane wherever possible and make a £12 donation to one of the NGOs or charities the guests will meet on their travels for every trip a guest takes by train during their trip: in the case of this holiday we bring supplies and educational materials to the salt pan workers in the Little Rann of Kutch.

3 We ally with conservation and community focused NGOs in most of the areas in which we work, making donations in exchange for their particularly insightful guiding.

4 We encourage guests to travel with a re-fillable water bottle and the majority of accommodation providers we use supply filtered drinking water. We try to operate a zero single use plastic policy throughout ou trips and are constantly trying to set an example by always travelling with small cloth bags for all purchases. We encourage guests to snack of freshly fried local dishes rather than packaged crisps and bsicuits.

5 We believe wildlife tourism can be an important conservation tool if used responsibly. Travel to national parks and wildlife areas brings positive economic benefits as entrance fees contribute to the maintenance and conservation of local flora and animal species, while visitors benefit from the educational aspects of the area and take away with them an increased awareness of the need and place for conservation. Equally important tourism helps the local communities living around these reserves by providing jobs and helping them realise the importance of the forest.

6. We use homestays and heritage accommodation, and favour supporting people whose properties are made from from sustainable local materials, we don't use five star concrete built hotels and use very few hotels with swimming pools.

People

We believe there are two fundamental factors in creating a successful and socially beneficial holiday: slow travel and placing value on local knowledge. All our guides are local; they not only know the facts about the area and its monuments, crafts or wildlife but the best routes to travel, whether it is worth a diversion to see a leopard footprint, to bypass a village where private ceremony is taking place or drop in on one where a baby welcoming party will enjoy the presence of some extra guests. It enables real relationships to be established between guests and host nationals.

We ensure that there are multiple languages speakers on all our tours to avoid cultural faux pas and to enrich the exchanges between everyone. Our guides ensure that same villages are not visited by foreigners too many times in a given period and that all supplies are brought along if meals or overnight stays are involved so no strain is put on the local resources.

All our accommodation providers employ the vast majority of their staff from local villages and encourage the learning of English, interaction with guests and opportunities for promotion. The also support the education of the children of their staff and their health needs.