carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

A note from Christopher Hill, Managing Director of Hands Up Holidays (linked to your site).

Hands Up Holidays are offering three trips over the Christmas/New Year’s period which are all carbon-offset:

1. Southern Hospitality - a 9 day luxury fully guided trip in South Africa that includes Cape Town, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula, volunteering at an AIDS orphanage, and a luxury safari - starting 24 Dec, ending 2 Jan to find out more click here.

2. Sunderbans Smiles - an 11 day community based tourism fully guided trip that includes Calcutta, tiger spotting in the Sunderbans, village interaction, and volunteering with
environmental conservation - starting 24 Dec, ending 4 Jan to find out more click here.

3. Taste of Morocco - a 9 day fully escorted guided trip that includes Marrakech, luxury riads in Marrakech and Essaouira, hiking in the Atlas Mountains (or a trip into the Sahara desert depending on weather conditions), relaxing in the coastal town of Essaouira, and volunteering in a remote Berber community to help build a library, IT room and reading room at the school - starting 24 Dec, ending 2 Jan to find out more click here.

Upland Escapes offer independent walking holidays in Europe to places that you would not normally discover as part of a traditional holiday (from the French Pyrenees through to the The Julian Alps, in Slovenia).

Upland Escapes offer a form of low impact sustainable tourism which helps to support communities in remote rural areas. Importantly you can reach all of their destinations by train!

Interestingly Upland Escapes also donate a percentage of their profits to local projects and they are currently involved in the repair of a number of mountain footpaths. Their brochures are printed on recycled paper and their maps are printed on fully-recyclable waterproof paper.

Upland Escapes won TTG’s ‘Scream if You’re Green’ Travel Award 2007!

Explore are one of the largest specialist adventure travel operators in the UK. If you feel like trekking along the Inca pathways of Choquequirao or hiking up Mount Kilimanjaro Explore offer guests these experiences. The natural and build environment are one of the cornerstones of the Explore guest experience and as such they have a dedicated policy on responsible tourism, which includes carbon neutral travel.

In terms of carbon neutral travel Explore offset the emissions for all their staff flights and now they also offset all of the passenger’s flights. Included within the tour cost is a sum which is paid to projects which reduce global CO2 emissions.  The emissions are offset with Climate Care.

Healthy Living and Sustainable Lifestyle Company Nature & Kind has been appointed as an Official Gift Provider to the nominees of the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2008.

Over 200 nominees for the awards including movie stars George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, James Mcavoy, Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Kiera Knightly, Tommy Lee Jones, Samantha Morton, and Sienna Miller will receive a £500 Nature & Kind Gift Voucher, redeemable against a hand-picked collection of eco chic accommodation, adventurous and cultural tailor-made tours and wellbeing retreats selected from the Nature & Kind Travel Collection – www.NatureandKindTravel.com

Andrew Harding, Founder of Nature & Kind says “We are honoured to be supporting such a prestigious event in the international calendar of film and entertainment, celebrating the achievements of British and international talent in the Film industry. We are delighted to be offering the nominees a gift from Nature & Kind, and we look forward to planning and booking their travel experiences featured by our Trusted Partners, who are committed to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible way, without compromise to high levels of guest comfort, service, style and value.”

In recognition of Nature & Kind’s commitment to environmental conservation, Nature & Kind will be donating £50 to the Born Free Foundation for every booking made by a nominee using their Nature & Kind Gift. The Gift presentation folder includes a personal message to the nominees from Virginia McKenna, Founder of the Born Free Foundation and British Academy Film Award Winner and Nominee saying “Nature and Kind are my two favourite words. Please accept this gift from Nature & Kind and they will generously support the Born Free Foundation, so that animals can be winners too!”

Gecko’s Adventures Wins International Responsible Tourism Award

Gecko’s Adventures has been recognised internationally for its positive social and financial impact on local communities, being named Best Tour Operator at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards in London.

Gecko’s Adventures scooped the award after being nominated by travellers and passing through a rigorous judging process that assessed 1700 entrants across 14 categories.

“Gecko’s stood out because it has a core policy of employing only local tour leaders, ensuring that the local community benefits financially from its holidays, and for its commitment to channelling revenues directly into conserving wilderness and heritage,” the judges said, acknowledging competition in the category was strong.

The Responsible Tourism Awards were established in 2004 by online travel agent responsibletravel.com and launched in partnership with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine – the magazine of The Royal Geographical Society in the UK.

The aim of the awards is to recognise individuals, companies and organisations for making a significant commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and for providing a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation.

Nominations for the awards are submitted by the public and of those tour operators short-listed, feedback is solicited from a range of informed sources relevant to each country. A panel of 13 judges meets at The Royal Geographical Society to debate the nominations and determine the winners.

“Winning this award is a fantastic achievement for Gecko’s Australia and our team of international land operators. Our local leaders and operators are a driving force in the ideas and implementation of many of the initiatives we have undertaken,” said Pete Rawley, Gecko’s Brand Manager.

“For Gecko’s travellers, it’s about being culturally and environmentally sensitive in a way that gives a deeper understanding of a place and its people - and guarantees a fun and rewarding experience.”

With its recently released 2008-09 brochures, Gecko’s is also believed to be the first Australian adventure tour operator to offer a voluntary carbon offsetting option on the land component of all its tours, as well as the accompanying flights.

For further information contact Gecko’s Adventures on 1300 854 500 or visit www.geckosadventures.com

Intrepid Travel, one of the world’s best small group adventure travel operators received the Environmentally Responsible Tourism Award for Best Small Tour Operator at this year’s British Travel Awards.

14 November 2007 – Intrepid Travel were Highly Commended in the Preservation of Cultural Heritage category at The Virgin Holidays Responsible Travel Tourism Awards, run in partnership with The Times, World Travel Market and Geographical Magazine.

13 November 2007 - The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) which launched their first Green Awards at World Travel Market awarded them Winner of The Best Green Specialist UK Tour Operator category.

Daniel Pawlyn, UK Sales & Marketing Director for Intrepid Travel said “Travelling in a culturally and environmentally responsible way is an integral part of the Intrepid travel philosophy, so we’re delighted to have been so highly recognised for our approach. We want our clients to have the trip of a lifetime and really experience travel at grassroots level whether it be through our homestays, visiting a local market or playing football with local kids, but we are careful to ensure that wherever we go in the world, we take a responsible attitude with us. That means travelling in a way which both respects and benefits local people, their culture and the environment.”

Intrepid Travel opens up a whole new world for its clients who can enjoy a multitude of trips where they have the chance to meet local people and really get to know their way of life first hand, contributing directly to local communities and helping develop cross-cultural understanding. To ensure that their operations and the potential impact their trips may have are in keeping with their philosophy, Intrepid Travel employs a full time Responsible Tourism Manager who monitors current practices and develops sustainable tourism programmes through The Intrepid Foundation.

Donations to The Intrepid Foundation, which has raised nearly £500,000 since 2002 can be made at www.theintrepidfoundation.org. Intrepid match all donations dollar for dollar. Intrepid Travel is working hard to reduce its carbon footprint and the company aims to be carbon neutral by the end of 2009.

Find out more about Intrepid Travel here.

Gecko’s Grassroots Adventures a provider of specialist adventure holidays have recently won the ‘Best Tour Operator’ award in the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards (2007). Gecko’s Grassroots Adventures who are based in Thatcham, Berkshire and Melbourne, Australia have a strong ‘responsible tourism’ policy in place. Initiatives include but are not limited to:

• Employing local leaders: “We involve local people in all aspects of our operations, providing training and employment opportunities, and ensuring an economic and educational return to the community.”
• Using local suppliers: “We choose to work with locally-owned business partners wherever we operate our holidays…We use public or locally-owned transport, family-run accommodation and restaurants and buy our supplies from local operators.”
• Small group travel: “The maximum group size on all of our adventures is 16 passengers - sometimes less - except in the Polar regions, where our ship carries a maximum of 110 passengers. Travelling in small groups ensures we make significantly less impact on the natural environment, as well as breaking down many of the communication barriers presented by a larger group.”

To find out more visit Gecko’s Grassroots Adventures website.