What makes our Individual Travels Responsible Travels?

Besides that we offer as much as possible Responsible Travels, with nature excursions, one or more day trekkings within a travel, horseback trekkings of several days, or design complete nature travels, of which local nature organizations and local guides do profit directly, we reserve a part of our profit for supporting local families or local projects with social, ambiental or healthcare aspects. This depends on destination and income related to destination (see also for every destination).

When travelers are interested we can assist with selecting community or environmental projects along the itinery. Clients can also come forward with one or more social projects they would like to visit and see how these can be integrated in their travel plan. For each travel we have a section ‘How this holiday makes a difference’. For two examples see: the Colombia section and the Andes holiday, traveling with private driver-guide through the Andes to Atacama.

All local operators are small and local owners, meaning that the income remains within the country and creates a real economic contribution to its people and country. See also: Fair Travel with Tourleader (TC). Accommodations are chosen by the client according to budget, taste and style, when they are locally owned this will have our preference, when this is not the case we will inform the client with further details so that a well balanced decision can be made.

In Cuba we support several families with children by giving clothes, medication, books, second hand luxuries, buying their handicrafts, and making donations for construction materials for housing. We’ve funded 2 families in East Cuba for housing to become established with a small house or start with constructing. We also offer and encourage travelers to stay in homestays (casas particulares) so that families can directly make an income which then gets ploughed back into Cuban society. When you visit farmers during your treks we ask participants, if possible, to donate luxury goods like ballpoint pens, soap and shampoo, and buy some coffee or leave a donation.

We have supported the initiative of a waterbirth centre in Lima and the education of Peruvian midwives in this subject. We offer authentic horseback trekkings in Argentina by which the local families have a good income and a way to sustain a traditional way of life in the mountains, etc etc..

Further we make exclusively use of the internet and email to distribute information and communicate with clients to save trees & minimise wastage associated with glossy brochures and postal communications. In office we re-use paper for printing and keep all used paper material apart to hand out to old paper collectors.

• Environment & cost effective solutions for reduction of CO2 emissions

The group travels of Latinamerica Journeys are created by very experienced Tourleaders, in cooperation with local guides and/or local agencies.

The Tourleader who accompanies you on your Latinamerica Journey, creates in this way his or her own income & living, according to what he or she considers a fair income for all services and responsabilities involved.

This is our vision of a responsible & ethical form of working for Tourleaders (TC).

Many International Touroperators make use of the desire of young people to travel, and offer a salary for carrying out the management of a travel that is far below the standards for sustaining a normal living in the Western World. Besides that, the salaries & secundary employment conditions do not correspond with the degree of responsabilities & management capacities that is being asked for. Net salaries as 50 Euros a day, or even less, with responsabilities for 24 hrs a day are very common. From this, TC courses have to be paid, all TC equipment has to be purchased, food & drinks on the travel have to be paid, and even sometimes other costs. And a good holiday with the partner, family or pension build up funding is not in the picture, as there is nothing to save.

You can be lucky of course and meet very talented & enthusiastic guides, despite their working conditions, but one of the results can also be that you have to be part of a group with group conflicts, small or larger accidents, and/or logistical & accommodation problems, as the guide involved is not qualified for the job. No one is looking for that, but the fact is, that it does happen, and you surely will not enjoy your travel as you would have liked.

Besides that, is it ethical of companies to promote themselves as being Responsible Travel Agents for taking care of nature, wildlife and indigenous tribes, as long as they do not even take care of their own staff and Tourguides ?

You can request for the contracts & secondary working conditions to International operators under which Tourleaders have to work, when it interests you, and you will realize that despite Awards for the Best Entrepreneur or the Best Responsible Operator of the year the human & ethical part of the companies in Tourism are not being looked at in this business so far. We would like to see that changed, but finally it is the traveler, the consumer who decides to pay just a little bit more for a fair travel with a professional. It is all about sharing.

The Tourleaders who accompany you on a Latinamerica Journey are professionals, with a lot of experience, who love their work, and who add something special to your travel with their talents & knowledge. They turn your travel into a more than ordinary journey with a golden edge.

And you will enjoy your holiday much more if you know that your investment also supports the well being of the One, who is taking care all the time of you for 24 hrs a day: your Tourleader.

When you book a Tailor made Grouptravel with Latinamerica Journeys you are certain that your Tourleader is a professional and creates an income that is healthy & responsible.

Your Tourleader is of great importance for the success or failure of your holiday !

The Latinamerica Journeys Tourleaders are Embassadors for Taking Care of our Planet. They supervise & instruct local guides & organizations to take care and respect Life. They are nominated as well for the World Guide Awards of Wanderlust Magazine. We as company also encourage outstanding local guides to start their own businesses as we once did.

With Latinamerica Journeys Group Travels you choose for a Responsible Tourism with a Soul & Heart.

Latinamerica Journeys offers travels in nature and culture according to general standards of respect for Life & Responsible Tourism.

This means that during our travel, the Tourleader of Latinamerica Journeys will provide you with suggestions & guidelines on the following subjects:

1. how we can create a mutual benefit out of the meeting of cultures, and minimize negative impacts on local cultures /
2. how we can support & inspire local communities in developing fairtrade, offering locally produced goods & services with taking care of the natural resources /
3. how we can maintain the well being of nature and minimize the damage to the environment, wildlife and marine ecosystems /
4. how we may co-create a better world; with fairtrade, with employment, education & healthcare available for all of us /

Latinamerica Journeys makes use of local guides for excursions and trekkings, and takes care of a healthy income for the local people who offer their services directly to Latinamerica Journeys. See also:Fair Travel with Tourleader (TC)

Latinamerica Journeys communicates her travel guidelines to all involved parties responsible for organizing an excursion, a trekking or another aspect of the Latinamerica Journeys. In case we feel that a certain aspect of the Travel Guidelines is not respected, we will stimulate the organization or the local person(s) involved to an improvement and accomplish a better mutual understanding.

We will also provide information about destination visits to local environmental or social projects with direct environmental or social benefits, in case this information is available.

Latinamerica Journeys makes exclusively use of the internet and email to distribute information and communicate with clients to save trees & minimise wastage associated with glossy brochures and postal communications.

The Tourleader of Latinamerica Journeys has the right
1 / to adapt a group travel program during the travel if this is necessary for the Well Being and Safety of All Participants.
2 / to suspend the continuation of the group travel for a participant, if he or she is violating in words and/or actions the well being of the group, and personal coaching turns out not to be adequate to change a certain situation.

We hope however that this will never happen and that insight and respect will prevail.

**Above all, we like to welcome a client and say goodbye to a friend !**Travel Policy of Latinamerica Journeys Group Travels Travellers Guidelines for Responsible & Ecological Tourism

You can compensate the CO2 emmisions of your flights with organisations like ClimateCare and GreenSeat, but there are more cost and travel effective solutions.

First interesting to know is that:

1. the livestock sector is a mayor player in climate change, responsible for 18% of greenhouse emissions measured in CO2 equivalent; this is a 40% higher share than the transport sector (FAO, 2006),

2. livestock is the largest user of land in the world amounting to one third of all the land on the planet (FAO, 2006),

3. of all the deforested land in the Amazon basin, 70% is covered by pastures for cattle (FAO, 2006),

4. production of meat needs 5 to 27 times more water per gram protein than grain (Reijnders & Soret, 2003),

5. the average conversion of plant based protein to animal protein is 10 to 1, implying that you need 10 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of meat (Reijnders & Soret, 2003),

6. the US livestock population consumes more then 7 times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population; the amount of grains fed to USA livestock is sufficient to feed 840 million people on plant-based diet (Pimentel & Pimentel, 2003),

7. one day of average meat consumption emits the same as 24 km driving by car; the replacement of meat only one day per week on year basis saves the same amount of CO2 as a return travel from Amsterdam to Berlin; replacement of meat for plant based protein, 2 or 3 days per week on year basis saves much more (VU, 2007), etc etc…

The Free University in Amsterdam has calculated that 18% of the CO2 emissions worldwide is from the meat industry, and that if a population of 16 million people would not consume meat for 3 days a week in a year, it has the same effect of taking out 3 million cars from the traffic; if it would be for 5 days a week, we would save 32 million returnflights from Amsterdam to Nice (2 return tickets per person)…

Small changes in our attitude can make a big difference

We Love our Planet, it could be a paradise…

You do not have to pay anything extra, you only have to act by reducing your meat consumption: it is for the wellbeing of our Planet and our future generations…

If you like to recieve a factsheet, with scientific references, about the effects of cattle raising on our natural resources worldwide, please contact us by mentioning “factsheet”

 Environment & cost effective solutions for reduction of CO2 emissions

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