Responsible Travel
When you go on holiday you want to be sure that you are getting a great experience and good service as well as value for money. You want a special, memorable holiday.
At Tribes we believe we can give you a holiday which will bring you memories to treasure.
But what if, as well as benefitting you (and without costing you extra), your holiday could also mean that fewer indigenous forests are chopped down, that slum children get more meals, and that wildlife is conserved?
We can also promise you that you will make a positive difference simply by booking with us.
And not only that, but imagine how much friendlier and more enthusiastic the people should be who work in places which really care about their staff and environment, as opposed to places where the owners are only interested in every penny they can make from you.
The service and experiences you can expect in our top eco-rated properties should make your holiday more special.
Responsible or sustainable travel (ecotourism) is travel 'that creates better places for people to live in, and better places to visit' *. Who could argue with that?
At Tribes we firmly believe that we have a responsibility to organise holidays which can make a positive difference to the world. The benefit we can each make individually might be small, but every little helps. And we believe that you can get a much better experience because of us working in the ways we do and caring about the people, places and wildilfe that we promote.
Below you will be able to read a bit more detail about what this actually means both to you and to the destination you might choose to visit.
Tribes is an international award-winning pioneer of responsible travel. It means a lot to us that we can give you a great holiday with this added factor that can really add to your experience.
* As defined by the 2002 Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations
The Tribes Foundation
When you book with us you are automatically helping grassroots projects such as children's orphanages, wildlife conservation and health centres. This is because every single booking with us helps The Tribes Foundation, the charity we back with admin and funding.
The Tribes Foundation is a registered UK charity (no. 1101766). It was set up by Tribes' directors in 2003. The trustees apply the following aims to the funds:
- The relief of poverty of indigenous communities
- The advancement of education of indigenous communities
- To promote and preserve cultural heritage and ecological biodiversity
Money for the Foundation is not added to your holiday cost, though all donations are welcome and put to very good use!
Free trees!
We plant 10 trees on your behalf.
This is done through The Travel Forest, a project of The Tribes Foundation. Offsetting the carbon emissions of your flights is the primary motivation for planting the trees, but the project also works as a poverty alleviation scheme and also aims to combat environmental degradation.
Currently we are planting in Malawi with the aim of reducing the rampant deforestation of indigenous woodlands here. The trees are a cost to Tribes, not to you.
Eco-rated places to stay
Rather than just deciding on whether somewhere looks like a great place to stay, you can choose your accommodation on whether it has a positive impact on local people, wildlife and the environment.
We rate the hotels and lodges we recommend. We award ratings based on efforts in conservation of environment, wildlife or for social responsibility.
Some places have really pioneering attitudes or even specific projects which can really add to you holiday experience. We have rated about 350 properties so far, and this is an ongoing process.
Community initiatives
We work with many unique and interesting small community initiatives offering you unmissable experiences. Such experiences often bring much-needed income to small villages and give you memories to treasure. You can always ask us to try to include some unique experience which benefits local communities if you can't find this on our website.
Policies and Codes that we work by
We have our own overall Tribes Code and environmental policy that we work to, but we also connect with various charities, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and associations which advocate certain policies which we believe are relevant to the experiences we promote.
- The Tribes Code
- Tribes office environmental policy
- Porter Policy
- Rules for visiting gorillas
