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We only promote ethical travel experiences and tour operators with a proven commitment to sustainability. To independently verify local adherence to responsible tourism standards, we mostly rely on credible third-party monitoring and certification organizations, to the extent available and as applicable for each destination.
Our vision is that all travel companies must be certified by a an audit standard that is also accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). This means that they operate consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and can prove this through an independent on-site audit. Learn how the GSTC Criteria align with all 17 UN SGDs.
On this page, you will find a list of the responsible travel certification organizations which we have already identified as meaningful sourcing criteria for our current and near-term destinations. As we expand globally, we continue to screen and add more monitoring organizations and certification bodies as relevant for accommodations and tour operators in our new destinations.
For many destinations globally, there are no credible local or regional responsible tourism initiatives in place that independently certify or monitor responsible and sustainable tourism standards. For all such cases, we rely on reputable global initiatives to independently verify our partners' commitment to sustainability. As a minimum, in the absence of more relevant local or regional certifications, we require our tour operator partners to have obtain at least Travelife Partner or TourCert Check status, depending on which scheme is available to them locally.
For us, Travelife is the most credible international responsible tourism certification organization for tour operators and accommodations. They have the most comprehensive set of sustainability standards across social and environmental impact criteria.Â
Travelife offers an entry-level award program called Travelife Partner. It serves to familiarize tour operators globally with internationally recognized sustainability standards and prove a basic commitment to sustainability. Furthermore, it helps businesses to improve how they manage their environmental and social impact on the destinations they operate in.
To monitor and verify actual practices for tour operators and accommodations who wish to advance to the certification level, Travelife conducts a rigorous on-site audit.
TourCert is a credible responsible tourism certification organization for destinations and companies that is particularly well-known amongst tour operators and travellers in German-speaking countries.Â
Similar to Travelife, TourCert offers an entry-level award program called TourCert Check – which serves to familiarize tour operators globally with internationally recognized sustainability standards and prove a basic commitment to sustainability.
In addition to local criteria, we also screen our tour operator partners against relevant regional responsible and sustainable tourism qualifications.
At the moment, we work with Rainforest Alliance Certified tour operators in Central America as well as Fair Trade Tourism approved tour operators and accommodations in Southern Africa.
We are actively screening regions globally for relevant standards and will add more responsible and sustainable partner organizations as we continue to add more destinations worldwide to our offering.
Fair Trade Tourism is a non-profit organisation promoting best-practice responsible tourism in Africa. They spread awareness about responsible tourism to travellers, assist tourism businesses to operate more sustainably and facilitate the Fair Trade Tourism certification and memberships programmes.
Its certification label stands for fair wages and working conditions, fair purchasing and operations, equitable distribution of benefits and respect for human rights, culture and the environment.
The Rainforest Alliance is an international NGO that supports businesses and destinations to implement responsible principles. They work together with local forest and agriculture communities to help them create a sustainable balance between people and nature.
Rainforest Alliance is currently our main benchmark for sourcing new partners and experiences in Central America.
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We screen our tour operator partners against applicable local qualifications specific to a destination.
If there is:
Then we make it mandatory that:
Ecotourism Kenya is the country’s own organisation that promotes sustainable and responsible tourism. They offer an eco-rating certification scheme that recognises best practices in business, conservation, community and cultural performance.
For Kilimanjaro climbs, we only promote verified ethical climbs that are independently monitored by the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project (KPAP).
Responsible Tourism Tanzania (RTTZ) is a non-profit organization that encourages and promotes a more sustainable tourism industry within Tanzania. RTTZ believes that the best in Tanzanian tourism is yet to come. So do we! Through our affiliate KiliGATE, we are a member of RTTZ.
Responsible and sustainable tourism certifications are still relatively new in most countries across Africa and lower income regions. Many countries do not yet have meaningful responsible travel audit programs.Â
In order to not exclude such destinations completely from our offering, we currently screen individual companies based on our own set of strict criteria. Once meaningful independent audit programs have become available to local operators in a certain destination, we expect all our partner companies to obtain such locally available audit.
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