These luxury travel companies are making the world a better place
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, few industries have fallen as hard and as fast as tourism. The numbers are staggering: in 2019, travel and tourism’s indirect and induced impact accounted for a $8.9 trillion contribution to the world’s GDP, 10.3 per cent of global GDP and 330 million jobs (which amounts to one in 10 jobs around the world).
The World Travel and Tourism Council, the trade group that represents travel companies across the globe, suggests that in the months since the pandemic began, a colossal $2.1 trillion in revenue has already been lost as a direct result of Covid-19. And sadly, they have predicted a worldwide loss of between 50 and 75 million travel-industry jobs.
“So many people around the world rely on tourism – not just the travel companies and airlines, but it is the more vulnerable individuals on the ground who enrich your holiday, such as the safari guide, the street seller and the tour guide, who have all suffered from the instant loss of income,” says Nico Kostich, the director of specialist Asia tour operator Yonder.
With a strong mission to give back, the company has launched three itineraries in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, all specifically designed to support local communities and wildlife reliant on tourism. Adventures include working alongside an NGO Tiger Watch organisation in India’s Ranthambore National Park, where you’ll join patrols, chart tiger movements and actively engage with the local community through schools and women’s cooperatives; a trip to Sri Lanka to explore Gal Oya National Park to learn about the park’s incredible ecosystem with leading naturalists and the chief elder of the Vedda tribe – small family-run hotels and a Sinhalese cooking experience in Kandy included; and Thailand, where you’ll jump in the ranger’s seat to set up camera traps, research animals, and build fences to help keep wild elephants within the safety of Kaeng Krung National Park.
Scott Dunn, offers travellers the chance to give back with a different kind of initiative: ‘voluntourism’. This hands-on experience takes you all the way to the forests and jungles of Guatemala and is designed to teach the importance of reforestation and the maintenance of ecosystems and rainforests locally, as well as globally. Scott Dunn also offers conservation tours of the eastern Indonesian archipelago to witness and get involved with the work of the not-for-profit Conservation International. You might find yourself assisting with ocean surveys and tagging manta rays in the deep blue sea.
Hospitality groups are getting in on the action, too. With over a million acres of protected land and a string of low-impact and ultra-sustainable lodges and camps under its belt, Singita has developed into one of the leaders in Africa. Dedicated conservation fees are included in the nightly room rate at the brand’s collection of stunning properties, all of which are used for wildlife conservation and community support. Initiatives include reforestation programs aimed at protecting endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda, a stay at Singita Faru Faru Lodge in Tanzania to support Singita’s anti-poaching task force and anti-poaching canine units, as well as purchasing artisan products that help secure employment locally.
Original Travel is also striving to bolster the wider travel community with a new and diverse collection of ‘philantourism’ itineraries, tailor-made to help support countries in desperate need of a tourism boom. For those unfamiliar with the term, Tom Barber, the founder of Original Travel, explains: “‘Philantourism’ is all about travel as a force for good… it’s a natural evolution of voluntourism, but less of a commitment; you don’t need to do anything after you arrive, other than enjoy the culture, buy local and put your spending money into the tourism economy.”
Destinations will include the Maldives, where WWTC figures show tourism contributes to 41.5 per cent of the country’s total economy, and Kenya, which has suffered from increased poaching and overfishing due to a slump in visitor numbers. Native wildlife has been hit very hard – for example in the Laikipia area, home to almost half of the country’s black rhino population. On the philantourism Kenya experience, guests will join patrols, track the animal, stay in the country’s first eco lodge and care for baby elephants at the Reteti Elephant Orphanage.
Equally as impressive, the Safari Collection’s new Footprint initiative has been created to ensure all its partner communities living nearby, benefit from sustainable tourism. The iconic Giraffe Manor, Sasaab, Samburu Reserve and the Masaai Mara’s Sala’s camp are among a handful of the collection’s properties that support amazing charities from the Pangolin Project to the Grevy’s Zebra Trust, the Mara Rhino Rangers, Conservation Scholars, Feeding Young Minds and SAFE Samburu.
Elsewhere, Love the Ocean, a not-for-profit organisation based in Jangamo Bay, Mozambique, offers visitors countless research and conservation programs designed to raise public awareness of issues like the protection of coral reefs. Work alongside marine biologists helping to protect megafauna (rays, humpback whales and more), tagging sharks, surveying reefs and patrolling beaches at night to keep sea turtles safe.
Untold Story is a company offering humanitarian aid with a trip that supports Rasoi on Wheels, a charity set up to help orphaned street children in Northern India. Its founders Manika Badhwar and Atul Kapur will personally show you around areas of interest so that you can better understand the issues at hand, while also getting involved in all the initiatives that help support, feed and house orphaned children. Ten per cent of the total holiday cost is also used as a contribution to the charity’s work.
