Responsible Travel - Go Differently
20108
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Responsible Travel

Since 2003, Go Differently has been offering tailor-made itineraries built around the principles of responsible tourism, often incorporating aspects of volunteering and/or voluntourism alongside other ethical policies which help to ensure that all our trips not only minimise the negative effects of tourism but wherever possible, actually have a positive impact on the communities we visit.

Responsible tourism… the fun way

So what is different about a Go Differently holiday? In a nutshell, as well as offering luxury tailor-made tours, we also try to support local community projects wherever practical and if you’re interested, we can also offer you the opportunity to spend a little time meeting and/or helping out the locals – whether it’s reading to the children of the village school, helping with planting or harvesting, or simply sharing a meal and exchanging life stories – our aim is that both cultures are enriched by their encounter.

Keeping it local

Using local guides, local transport, locally-owned accommodation and paying fair wages, ensures that not only do you gain a unique insight into the culture you are visiting but also that as much of your money as possible stays in the local community.

Whether your idea of heaven is 5 star luxury with all the trimmings, a beautiful boutique hotel or a small and friendly homestay, all our favourite accommodation options are carefully selected to ensure that they are either locally-owned or have policies in place to make sure that they treat their staff and the environment with respect.

Lending a helping hand

We support various community projects (helping to preserve traditional ways of life, providing education and supporting environmental initiatives) by encouraging our guests to visit or stay a while to lend a helping hand. Two of our longest running and most successful involvements have been…

With the tsunami-affected villages north of Khao Lak – working with North Andaman Tsunami Relief from its initial inception, we were the first operator to send voluntourists to this area (and quite possibly anywhere in Thailand) and continue to send homestay visitors/volunteers to this day.

Supporting an initiative established to provide an alternative means of income for mahouts and their elephants at camps around Pattaya.

Leave only fooprints, take only photographs…

By working in co-operation with local individuals and companies, particularly in less-developed regions, we advise on any potential impacts of our visits and strive to minimise these wherever possible. In this way, those who travel with us are not greeted as unwanted intruders but rather as welcome guests.

Your pre-departure documentation will include information about our responsible travel policies and will encourage you to follow our guidelines. These include stressing the need to avoid wastage of local resources, minimising the pollution caused by leaving litter and emphasising the need to respect local customs and cultural beliefs. As locals themselves, our guides will also advise and help you to fit in with social expectations.

In order to ensure a minimal impact on the places visited, the maximum size of a group on any trip is 8. We believe this allows you to become actively involved in the lives of the local communities without overwhelming them or the risk of imposing foreign morals and values.

Practicing what we preach

In the office we use paper from sustainable sources and recycling facilities as far as it is practical to do so. We also reduce wastage by trying to keep our paper-based literature/correspondence to a minimum.

Details of all our trips are re-produced on our website and available in downloadable electronic format.