Responsible travel

Responsible Itinerary Planning: Responsible travel starts with responsible planning. From the moment we start planning an adventure, we take all necessary steps to ensure the itinerary minimises negative impacts and maximises positive impacts on the regions and communities visited.

Screening Travel Operators: We regularly screen our travel operators to ensure their practices meet our high standards.

Responsible Marketing: We make sure our marketing materials are a respectful and accurate representation of the regions we visit so you can be confident what you see is what you get.

Acknowledging Responsibility: We recognise the vulnerability of certain people in the regions we visit, particularly women, children and minority ethnic groups.

Protecting Vulnerable Groups: Working together with our ground operators and staff, we take important steps to minimise the risk of negative impact to these groups, including:

-developing and implementing our child protection policy

-educating our participants of potential issues prior to travel

-training our team leaders and staff to identify situations that pose risk

-providing escalation channels to participants if concerns are raised

Giving Back to Communities: Where possible, money raised from our adventures are directed back to the local community through our charity partners who have a local branch in countries we visit.

Supporting Local Business and Enterprise: We use local suppliers, local restaurants and food providers, and family owned accommodation or homestays wherever possible to ensure that as much money as possible generated by the adventure remains in the local economy.

Using Local Tour Operators: We use local tour operators for most of our adventures to ensure more of the money generated by tourism stays in the local community. We also believe using local tour operators and guides provides a richer, more authentic experience for you.

Educating Travellers: We share information about local cultures and customs before you travel through pre-departure materials and a conference call.

Authentic, Local Goods and Services: We encourage our travel partners to ensure all goods and services in country are authentic and local communities are adequately reimbursed.

Promoting Meaningful Cultural Interactions: We believe travel is so much more than being a tourist. We promote meaningful interactions with local people through real experiences such as home stays, cultural events, cooking classes and visits to local markets and eateries.

Educational Project Visits: We include educational project visits where we can, in conjunction with our international charity partners.

Reducing Impact, Together: We look for partners that are also taking action to reduce the negative environmental impacts of their business operations, and we work together for positive change.

Avoiding Overcrowding: We promote less-visited destinations and itineraries to relieve the burden on tourist-congested regions.

Minimising Air Travel: We offer adventures close to home, such as in Australia and the Pacific, to provide travel experiences with a lower carbon footprint.

Choosing Low-Emission Transport Options: We encourage our travel operators to choose public transport and other lower-impact transport options where possible.

Reducing Waste: We reduce waste through using the ‘refuse, reduce and recycle’ mantra with all our business operations at home and abroad and encourage you to do the same, too. We particularly discourage the use of single-use plastics.

Supporting Local Conservation Efforts: We support local conservation efforts and encourage our partners to do the same.

Small Group Travel: We operate small, group tours of no more than 25 people to maximise the experience for you while also minimising impacts on communities visited. This also allows groups to stay in smaller, locally run accommodation and dine in local restaurants.

Protecting Wildlife: We have robust Animal Protection Guidelines.

Recognising Responsibility: We recognise the important role we play in promoting responsible travel practices with our travel operators, our participants and our charity partners. We consider this responsibility a privilege and take it very seriously.

Educating and Empowering: When you join an Inspired Adventure, you will be provided with accurate, informative materials before you hit the road including information on how to be a responsible traveller.

Shared Accountability: We share the accountability for responsible travel practices with our travel operators on jointly run adventures and work together with our partners to maximise our positive impact.

Protecting Wildlife: We have robust Animal Protection Guidelines.