responsible tourism

Policy Statement

"Dragoman Overland are committed to ensuring that we have a positive impact on local communities and that we implement policies to minimise any negative impact on the local environment.

Dragoman Overland are dedicated to making sure that we adopt a responsible attitude to the areas through which we travel. We believe that our trips should benefit the local people and their environments. We consider that the local culture and communities must be an integral part of our trips. Dragoman Overland recognises that we are guests of local communities and we strive to make these communities into our partners, so that they benefit from our business.”

AITO Responsible Tourism Award

We are really proud to say that we have recently been awarded the highly prestigious AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators) Responsible Tourism Award for 2005.The award was given because of our company wide commitment to RT, but especially for the hands on community projects that we have been funding, such as the Inca Trail & Quechua Community Project and the Kariandusi School Trust.

AITO Responsible Tourism Committee also very kindly voted to give a donation of £1000 through Dragoman Overland to the Kariandusi School Trust for its work in building Kenyan Schools. Drago works hand in hand with KST to raise funds for their building programme and many of our trips visit and lend a helping hand at the schools. On behalf of the KST and Dragoman Overland we would like to say a huge thank you to AITO for this money.

Click here for AITO press release on Award

Supporting Local Businesses

Wherever we are in the world we prefer to use smaller locally owned businesses, ensuring that locally communities benefit economically from our business.

• We are based in a small rural community and support our local businesses wherever possible.
  
• We use small locally owned hotels, campsites and restaurants wherever possible
  
• Shopping is done locally often in markets, where much local produce is purchased
  
• The services of local guides, local crew and companies, mean that we as well as supporting the local economy our passengers also benefit from the considerable knowledge of local people
  
• Use of local mechanics, workshops and parts suppliers mean that our economic returns are far reaching and not just directly tourism based
  
• We vet our local suppliers to ensure that they act responsibly towards their employees, animals, the community and the environment

Involving Communities in Tourism

As early as 1994, Dragoman Overland had decided it wanted to give something back to the countries and people we met on our journeys. This has, amongst other things, lead to a commitment to local community projects and has also started some really great friendships.

• We include smaller scale community projects, in many of our itineraries eg. Samburu Cultural project near Samburu National Park in Kenya a chance for our passengers to learn about local life.
  
• Home stays are included in many itineraries, the money from this goes directly to communities and passengers also gain an authentic insight into the country
  
• Educational visits to charitable foundations, such as the Usthi Foundation in Calcutta
  
• We are committed to several longer term community projects, which are included on a 1/3 of our trips
  
  • Kariandusi Primary School – project to rebuild 8-classroom school by Kariandusi School Trust, with assistance from Dragoman Overland and passengers. £45000 funds were raised in 2004/2005
    
  • Langalanga School – project to rebuild a crumbling prisoner of war camp that has doubled as a primary school for over 500 pupils. Dragoman Overland and passengers raised £45-50000 so far
    
  • Simba School – project to rebuild a two tier primary school for 700 pupils. We are on course to raise about half the funds needed through cycle challenges, local fund raising and our group visits
    
  • Soft Power - is an organisation set up to support teachers and development in a number of Ugandan Schools. This project was the brainchild of ex-Drago tour leader Hannah Small.
    
  • Quechua Community Project – On our Inca trail & Community trek we are working alongside our local trekking operator to develop projects to benefit local Quechua communities. These projects include working with the schools to assist with teacher funding, maintenance, teaching materials; tree planting; building revenue earning campsites; planting of crops; and the building of a community centre museum/craft shop where local products and artefacts can be sold.
    Malealea - currently several community development activities in Malealea, with two main (but not separate) areas of focus: development and education. We are hoping to expand our project here into a more hands on working project.
    
• Local communities are involved right through the project, from the initial ideas, building and how the project is run
  
• The projects are not tourist initiatives but use tourism for funding, support & community interaction
  
• Priority is given to projects in areas of particular need
  
• Tourism in the form of Dragoman Overland trucks and passengers bring economic support and are educational for the passengers as well as promoting a sense of well being
  
• For each community Project visited, adonation is made per person, this is matched by Dragoman Overland.
  
• Local/ regional /international initiatives are supported where ever possible eg. Porters Rights, Animal welfare…..
  
• We pledge to continue to run our programmes wherever possible in countries where political instability means that mainstream tourism pulls out. Local suppliers, businesses & communities rarely sanction political ideals and should not be penalised for a government's behaviour. Eg. Zimbabwe

Community Projects We Visit

Look out for the 'hand' logo as you read through the trips. This denotes any trip with a community project, which you can get involved in.

Select a community project from the list below to find out more about some of the projects we've worked on so far:

Select a community projectArusha Snake Camp Masai Project Bonito Eco Area Brenu Primary School Project Estancia Primary School Project Himba Kraal Community Visit Kariandusi School Project Kasbah de Toubkal Community Lodge Kawaza Village Project Malealea Community Project Malealea Community Project Maya K'iche Homestay Ombili Bushman Community Project Otjitongwe Cheetah Reserve Quechua Indian homestay Quechua Indian Project and Inca Trails Samburu Cultural Project Soft Power Schools Project Usthi Children's Foundation Project List all community projects

 

Involving Staff & Customers in Responsible Tourism Issues

• We are committed to working within our responsible tourism policy and seek to improve on our goals at all times
  
• Environmental code of conduct posted in every truck, followed by passengers and crew. These are everyday guidelines.
  
• As part of pre departure meeting crew will discuss particular environmental concerns for the region they are travelling in
  
• Responsible tourism and environmental impact training for all UK staff and on road crew
  
• We show our commitment to responsible tourism in our brochure message
  
• Passengers are asked to answer 3 questions related to our attitude to responsible tourism and environmental issues on the post trip questionnaire

Environmental Concerns

We are committed to trying to reduce, re-use and recycle as much as is possible, wherever we are in the world.

• Recycling is practiced wherever possible (including the UK), in many places this is informal projects with local people collecting materials for recycling eg. aluminium can collections in Brazil
  
• Biodegradables are either buried or given to local people feed livestock
  
• Purchase of drinks in returnable bottles where possible.
  
• The use of re-useable shopping bags is encouraged instead of throw away plastic bags
  
• Products such as oils and tyres are often reused several times after we have finished with them, used for local trucks as they are happier to run on lower qualities.
  
• For cooking we generally use gas instead of wood, this is a cleaner fuel and leaves local natural resources for local people
  
• Local fuel sources are used but they must be from plentiful resources and not where it would encourage local people to squander resources or compete with local peoples need for precious supplies
  
• Each truck carries sufficient drinking water (approx 450l) this makes the purchase of individual plastic bottles of drinking water unnecessary.