Responsible Travel

Tourism is one of the most important and largest industries on the planet. It employs more people worldwide than any other, with millions of families relying on tourism for their daily needs.

The last few decades have been dotted with disaster stories where tourism has resulted in over-development, destruction of environments and in cultural misunderstandings and mistrust. It has also recently been embroiled in the debate about global warming and carbon emissions caused by flying. At Exodus we believe that our type of small scale, positive impact tourism can bring benefits to many communities, help preserve the environments we travel to see, and provide real and positive social exchanges.

Benefits can be obvious in parts of the developing world where the income we provide can mean the difference between economic survival and poverty. However, even in Europe, tourism can help stabilise rural communities by providing much needed employment and give powerful economic reasons to preserve shrinking natural environments.

Responsible Travel Policy ¦ Our Partners and Projects

Exodus, the environment and responsible tourism

As tourism becomes a truly global industry, we recognise our obligation to operate our tours in a responsible and sustainable fashion. We view this not only as an environmental issue but an economic and social one as well. Above all we are committed to the well-being of the communities that are our hosts and the natural environment that we are there to experience. We also believe that by following these policies we can provide a more rewarding and interesting experience to you our clients.

The following are the key points in our philosophy:

Small groups have less impact on local communities and environments.
Where possible we believe in putting money directly into the communities we visit by using locally owned and run accommodation and eating locally produced food.
We are careful to ensure that local staff and operators receive a fair rate for their services.
We encourage our own staff to take an active interest in responsible and sustainable tourism and train them accordingly so that they can put our policies into practice.
We endeavour to ensure that our practices help in the environmental conservation of the areas we visit.
We provide our clients with advice and guidelines on how to respect the social, cultural and religious beliefs of local communities.

Responsible Travel

At Exodus we have always believed in three simple guiding principles for the way in which we want to travel.

• We realise that every destination is someone else’s home
• We should leave places as we would like to find them
• We should ensure that communities benefit from our visit