Sustainability & The Travel Experience

INTERNAL

Employment

• The Travel Experience creates safe, healthy, equal and encouraging working environment for all regular, project based and free lance staff.
• We provide equal opportunities for people during recruitment process, regardless of their gender, age, race, religion or sexual orientation.
• All staff have clear written agreement on employment and its terms
• We encourage all to have healthy work-life balance.
• Work satisfaction is monitored at regular intervals and feedback is welcomed.
• The Travel Experience provides its regular staff access to occupational health care.
• We encourage using public transportation and other sustainable modes of transport.
• We value freelance staff and provide fair employment opportunities for them

Education

• We regularly educate our staff on sustainability and how to make travel more sustainable.
• We encourage our staff to develop their professional skills and product knowledge by inspections and events.
• We welcome ideas from staff on how we can further improve on making our operations and tours more sustainable.

Operations

• Our office operations are conducted in a manner which minimizes negative impact on environment including water and energy consumption.
• We favour sustainable energy sources in the office.
• We favour using public transportation when possible and hybrid/electric cars when not possible.
• Waste is minimized by coordinated purchasing process and recycling of any materials or equipment is done whenever possible.
• We minimize printing and use recycled paper whenever possible.
• At travel fairs we favour digital material over paper brochures.
• We avoid using any disposable items when possible.
• We favour locally produced, recyclable supplies whenever possible.

Economic

• We concentrate on long term profitability and sustainable growth.
• We operate in a sustainable way as part of the local community. We hold all necessary licencing and follow local rules and laws on taxes and fees.
• We believe in fair business and make sure all parties involved benefit from it

EXTERNAL

Partners

• We expect all our partners to follow local laws and regulations on social issues and have required licences and registrations required by the authorities as well as act responsibly towards the environment.
• We encourage our suppliers to improve the sustainability of their services. We favour suppliers who share our values on sustainability, invest in it and encourage them to get certified.
• Any feedback from customers is forwarded to the supplier partners and follow up on it.

Destination

• We collaborate and exchange experiences at various regional, national and international travel industry forums in order to support sustainability in tourism.
• We help clients to choose the right destination for them and minimize any negative effect on local community or environment.

Nature

• We make sure nature is not damaged during our tours and that no waste is left behind.
• Guide makes sure that if anything is picked it is during a guided activity for berry or mushroom picking which follows Finnish Everyman´s law ie they can be freely picked and consumed as long as you dont go on someone´s private yard.

Animals

• We don’t offer tours using captive wildlife, only tours observing the wildlife in free natural surroundings.
• We work only with activity operators which have good reputation for treating animals (huskies or reindeers) well and we favour those which are certified. We encourage all partners to get certified.

Cultural Heritage

• In our tour planning we respect and highlight local cultural heritage and aim at authentic experiences.
• We use services of local companies as much as possible.

Food

• Local, seasonal food is provided whenever possible.
• We provide clients options for more healthy food options (for example more fish instead of meat)
• We favour fresh tap water at restaurants over bottled water

Transport

• We encourage guests to use sustainable transportation methods to and in the destination.
• In addition to private transfers we offer also public transportation when possible
• Restaurants within walking distance are favoured

Safety

• We make risk assessment of all tours and events and take measures to guarantee safety or our guests as well as staff and partners
• We make sure that good level of hygiene is provided in all services and facilities
• We provide 24hour emergency phone number to all guests in the destination.
• We highly recommend all guests to have a valid travel insurance covering all activities

Support to Organisations for Local Charity or Nature Preservation

• We cooperate with local charities and environmental protection funds in order to leave a positive legacy to the destination.

Communication

• We tell about our goals for sustainable travel to our clients and encourage them to adopt similar steps in their operations or daily lives.
• We aim at providing lasting positive impact on the travellers´ mindset from travelling with us.