Questionnaire for the 2007 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards

This is is how  we anwered the questionnaire sent to the award panel. The words in blue are hyperlinks to the specific topics so you can click on it to read more. They take you to other pages on the website or out of the website. It will open in a new window so you can close that window to keep reading this. The words marked in green (which are few) link to the joint authoring wiki on responsible tourism

Provides inspirational trips to Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Ghana. We are an organisation who has taken responsibility to heart, using principles of corporate social responsibility in everything we do, not only trips. We educate travellers, the community, guides, porters, the national level tourism authorities while we do our business. We constantly try to find ways to creative put the concept of responsibility into practice, inhouse, as well in our stakeholder base.

1. Do you have a written responsible tourism policy?

YES

If yes, please send us the policy by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or if it is on your website, please tell us the URL.

our responsible tourism policy can be read here  

2. What is the single most significant achievement you have made regarding local people, the environment and/or conservation in the last 2 years? (150 words max)

The most significant achievement in two years is in Ghana. We launched a carbon offset forest project in the small village of Putubiw, near Cape Coast, where 10 trees are planted for each traveler coming into the village. We are working here with Putubiw Students Union (PUSU) and helping develop a ground level organization who is working on village development goals and priorities. We aim to take this forest global, in order to initiate the process of tourism helping development and conservation at the same time. The forest will help travel to Ghana become ‘green’, earn money for the village organization to achieve their developmental goals, and also assist conservation and slow down climate change. So far, it is volunteers who have come to this village to help assist the villagers, but because of this project, Putubiw will become a tourist attraction. The multiplier potential is enormous.

What is your evidence to support this?

Since the start of the project, 67 trees were planted, 10 for each volunteer traveler coming to the village and some more. Since then, researchers from Edinburg University have wanted to visit this unique village, and travelers too. The Chief, Nana Bokyrewa Ekwambir III has also now promised to provide a special plot of land to develop into a forest.

The project has been visited by four volunteers so far, working on project proposals for a primary school, and an HIV/AIDS awareness camp. A forestry researcher from Edinburgh University has participated in the research to find out how to regenerate traditional rain forests, and tourism has started trickling in.

Please read news on our website www.socialtreks.com , call Benjamin, Chairman of the PUSU @ 233 24 6393224 or Nana Bokyrewa Ekwambir III, the chief of Putubiw, @ 233 243863730 or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , Quest Director, United Planet

By the time this is read, the website of Putubiw Village will also be launched.

3. Have you been able to improve the experience of contact between the tourist and local people for your travellers or the local community? If so, please explain how you have achieved this.

Most certainly. We are a local organization and always use local guides, preferably from the same community that the travelers go to. Two factors contribute to increased contact

1. We always brief both guides and travelers on this principle and encourage more contact

2. We always only take small groups… in most cases, our travelers are couples, and this helps travelers not stick to themselves, and mingle with communities more.

Also, the mere fact that the travelers come in contact with at least three different ethnic groups among staff in the organization (we are just four of us) gives them increased contact

We also encourage Heritage Trails and Shamanism Trips, and have been one of the first organizations to promote the Tamang Heritage Trail and the Chepang Hill Trail (developed by the Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Program run by UNDP, SNV and DFID) and Shamanism Treks in Nepal.

Tamang Heritage Trail Trek  

Heritage Trail Feedback

Shamanism Trek

Chepang Hill Trek

Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Programme

4. What steps have you taken to encourage positive engagement with local communities and to reduce any negative social or cultural impacts in the destination? (max 250 words)

We initiated Namaste Nepal, a joint German Nepali School Partnership, which has resulted in friendship between a community in Freiberg, Germany, and Gati, a village in Nepal. Over the past three years, this partnership has blossomed to bring these two communities together every year, as the Germans travel to Nepal, has supported the school in Gati, conducted a cataract eye camp, bringing sight back to 175 eyes, started a forestry project, improved cooking stoves and has recently expanded to a partnership between another Nepali village school and another school in Germany. The socio-cultural implications of these are tremendous.

Namaste Nepal website   (in German)

Read about the partnership in English : 

Earlier this year, we conducted a workshop on Tourism and the Environment and invited communities who are involved in Tourism in Nepal. We had 45 members at this workshop which dealt with issues of heritage and environment conservation. The next workshop is scheduled in September on Tourism, responsibility and gender issues. So, we are doing out bit of spreading the news.

check our newsroom for details.

We support volunteering and are working with United Planet in Boston and People and Places in the UK, to provide in-depth intercultural experiences and capacity building.

We of course, also preach to our travelers about guidelines to follow to be socially, environmentally and economically responsible. 

How did you measure the impact of this action? What evidence can you offer that demonstrates that you are making a difference?

In three years, the school partnership has resulted in trips to Nepal going to the village of Gati. 3 years of trips each has resulted in over 48 travellers visiting Nepal, the school partnership has extended to another village, and grants to the tune of 8000 - 10000 Euros have already come into this project. The school partnership has won awards in Germany. (see website for details)

The 45 members at the workshop come from various strata of tourism professionals, from lodge-owners to guides, and company directors. Check our newsroom for details.

Over 40 volunteers have come via United Planet to Nepal and Ghana and worked with Child Abuse, Orphanages, Schools, Village Development Organizations and Medical Institutions, in Ghana and in Nepal. The effect has ranged from just helping out at orphanages and schools, to developing and implementing HIV/AIDS awareness camps and Summer Camps for children in Ghana. The volunteers have formed lasting friendships and have contributed greatly in village and local development. This year, we suggested an initiative to United Planet to start a country fund in each of the countries that United Planet sends volunteers to. This has now been started and is in place. The money will be used to fund deserving proposals from partner projects.

We are working on demonstration of a creative business mechanism of linked prosperity and education and promoting cultural exchange and joint development. It is difficult to measure it, as a lot of it is intangible

5. What steps have you taken to encourage spending by your travellers in the local economy? (max 150 words)

We educate the traveler on this topic, through our guidelines for traveling responsibly plus we are a local organization. Booking through us ensures that 100% of the money stays in the country and supports the local economy as opposed to booking in the market. Education of the traveler is the only means here, as the choice of the travelers is entirely theirs. We do encourage buying of locally produced handicrafts, but too much stress on this leads to travelers thinking we are trying to get a commission. We also encourage buyers to buy equipment in country, instead of spending top dollar spending in their own countries.

How did you measure the impact of this action? What evidence can you offer that demonstrates that you are making a difference?

We can measure this by the increase in our direct bookings. We are a small organization but are completely self-relaint on direct marketing. We bring in about 40-50000 USD of sales yearly from just direct bookings. For an organization based in the destination country, that is quite an achievement in just five years.

We are a totally internet based marketing company, and do all our bookings direct with customers. Only in the recent year, an organization from Austria has shown an interest in the way we do things and have approached us. The increase in bookings and interest from the market is a measure of what we are doing right in this case.

6. What steps have you taken to reduce the environmental impact of your travellers in destinations? (max 150 words)

This is inherent and the most important part of being a ‘responsible’ travel company. We educate travelers, guides, porters, communities on reduction of negative environmental impacts of tourism and promote a zero litter policy in our trips. This is done using our guidelines for responsible travel and our responsible tourism policy . Since our groups are small, we are quite effective in this process.

The carbon offsetting forest started in Ghana is another example. In the future, all travel through our company will become ‘green’ with a zero carbon footprint.

How did you measure the impact of this action? What evidence can you offer that demonstrates that you are making a difference?

The impact is in the figures of travelers who come via our organization and support our actions. Over 100 travellers each year, travel through socialtours.com and support these very values.

We are demonstrating what is possible, and the impacts of all these actions are in the education of the travelers, their support of what we are doing, and their continuous support. Read our testimonials for this.

7.  Are you taking any steps to reduce your carbon footprint (the impact of your organisation on global warming) through reducing the consumption of fossil fuels, the burning of wood or reducing the consumption of electricity? Do you have figures which report what you have achieved? (250 words max)

We recently joined the website www.carboncounted.com and are working on calculation of the carbon footprint of all our trips and our own offices.

We are planting trees in the carbon offset forest in Ghana and participate regularly in the Bagmati River Festival, a 2 months program to save the River Bagmati in Nepal.

We are encouraging travelers to choose lodges with improved stoves and back burners and using solar energy

Guides are trained in this direction

In the office, we minimize use of paper, using computers instead, use both sides of printing paper when needed, then when paper becomes waste, give it to a recycling plant and use their recycled paper for making our visiting cards. We limit work at night to conserve electricity and limit use of plastics. Read responsible initiatives : internalizing practices on our website for details

8. To what extent have you been a leader for your suppliers or businesses in the destination to encourage them to develop their own responsible tourism practices? Please illustrate how this is being put into practice. (200 words max)

In Nepal, we are trailblazers in the field of responsible tourism and are active core members of the Sustainable Tourism Network in Nepal, under the Nepal Tourism Board, and have chaired the committee to develop the vision, mission, values of the Sustainable Tourism Network

Recently, we have started conducting workshops on these issues in Nepal, having conducted one on environment and tourism and the next one on responsibility and gender issues. These workshops are being conducted through the MAST-NEPAL project (Marketing of Sustainable Tourism Products of Nepal) 

We get invited to talk at the Social Responsible Business Development Network

In Ghana, we are already training tourism stakeholders in Ecotourism principles through consultancy work done by our director for the JICA and SNV initiated Public Private Partnership forums. Two trainings have already been completed.

Vishwaraj Gyawali (Raj), Founder Director, continuously provides consultancy services in the field, evaluating tourism projects, training development and tourism professionals on principles of responsible tourism.

Our website has launched a wiki to invite professionals to contribute in a joint authoring initiative to further the knowledge of responsible tourism, the vision being to make it the one stop resource for tourism professionals, development organizations, educators and students interested in responsible travel.

10. What is your next priority on the journey to responsibility to local people and the environment? (150 words max)

We will concentrate on our carbon offsetting program, as we see this to have a potential to have a high impact on the effective relationship between tourism, the people and the land. We will strive to give ownership of these schemes to local communities, thereby generating desperately needed financial inputs to fuel their development plans and at the same time promoting tourism and conservation.

We recently joined www.carboncounted.com  and hope to be able to provide total green travel in the future, once we have calculated the impact of all travel activities we conduct and offsetting it in the forest we have started.

We will also try and further the advancement of the responsibility in tourism field through the knowledge base being worked on in our websites responsible tourism wiki

Of course, we will not stop educating and leading the industry

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