Responsible tourism is about creating better places for people to live in and to visit.
We use the guidelines for responsible tourism that were chartered in Cape Town in 2002 as our guiding tool to create our responsible tourism policy. The 7 core headlines from the charter that we have adopted and internalised are

Furtheron, we have adapted the triple bottom line of the responsible tourism policy to fit our company and how we work.

People and Social Responsibility

All of our local partners are handpicked based on common values and believe in how tourism should be managed. We work with partners that are experts in their country and/or their community to make sure our holidays are within a framework that is suitable for each community.

We aim towards maximising the benefit of tourism in the local community where we are travelling and minimizing the negative impacts. Our itineraries are built up in partnership with our local partner to ensure we meet our goals. We aim to include as many local suppliers as possible to share the benefit locally. We involve our local partners and / or other stakeholders in planning and decision-making and provide capacity building to make this a reality.

We assess social impacts throughout the life cycle of the operation – including the planning and design phases of projects – in order to minimise negative impacts and maximise positive ones.

We endeavour to make tourism an inclusive social experience and to ensure that there is access for all, in particular vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and individuals. We combat the sexual exploitation of human beings, particularly the exploitation of children. At ETP we also have our own policy and mechanisms to combat sexual exploitation of children

We aim to be sensitive to the host culture, maintaining and encouraging social and cultural diversity. All of our travellers receive information on how to be a sensitive traveler in the respective country they are visiting. On arrival, if they are met by one of our local partners, they also get a brief on site, in the beginning of their journey.

We endeavour to ensure that tourism contributes to improvements in health, education and creating employment locally. We donate 10% each year of our profit from our operation to various organisations. These are local charities we believe in, operate in destinations we send our travellers to and that we have known for a long time. Example of these charities are Kalap Trust in India working on a Health Clinic in Tons Valley, My Name is Kumar – a school for former street kids in Tamilnadu India, Antardristi – an organisation that support sexual abused minors in Nepal or The Gambia Cotton Trail – working on creating employment in rural areas to give opportunities throughout the country.

We donate either direct or through our sister charity, The GreenBox

Planet and the Environmental Responsibility 

We assess environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of tourist establishments and operations – including the planning and design phase – and ensure that negative impacts are reduced to the minimum and maximising positive ones. Wherever possible we ensure that the activities we offer our travellers have reduces negative impacts to the minimum. For example  using sailing boat or hybrid boat for safaris in Tromsø, or promoting seeing the shoreline from a kayak instead of a motorised transportation. In Norway, we also focus on travel with public transportation on train, ferries and buses. When people go on road trips, we suggest hybrid cars which are commonly popular in Norway.

We use resources sustainably, and reduce waste and overconsumption. ETP is a plastic free and paperless office. We work from the “cloud” and while some of our staff are located at the office, it is a co-working space. Accommodation we use, are carefully chosen, and so are the activity providers.

We manage natural diversity sustainably, and where appropriate restore it; and consider the volume and type of tourism that the environment can support, and respect the integrity of vulnerable ecosystems and protected areas. We operate on a small scale, and provide for individuals or small groups of less than 12 people.

We care about animals and love to see them in the wild! We are therefore mindful of all types of tourism that involve animals. For wildlife watching, we partner with people with huge knowledge about the wildlife and understand the animals with respect, and leave them to their natural behaviours and habitats. For activities that involve animals, we have carefully chosen our partners based on how the animals are taken care of, small scale operation with a purpose outside of the tourism industry and with a connection to the animal that can only be understood by experiencing it!

RESOURCES WORTH READING:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/06/global-wildlife-tourism-social-media-causes-animal-suffering

https://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Animals-in-Tourism-lWeb-FINAL.pdf

https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/wildlife-not-entertainers

We promote education and awareness for sustainable development – for all stakeholders.

We raise the capacity of all stakeholders and ensure that best practice is followed, for this purpose consult with environmental and conservation experts.

Profit and the Economic Responsibility 

We assess economic impacts before developing tourism and exercise preference for those forms of development that benefit local communities and minimise negative impacts on local livelihoods (for example through loss of access to resources), recognising that tourism may not always be the most appropriate form of local economic development. We operate on a small scale and do not have any hard investment that results in loss of access to resources or similar. We work with the communities, and strive to connect travellers with locals to create mutual understanding and learning experiences.

We maximise local economic benefits by increasing linkages and reducing leakages, by ensuring that communities are involved in, and benefit from, tourism. Wherever possible we use tourism to assist in poverty reduction by adopting pro-poor strategies.

We develop quality products that reflect, complement, and enhance the destination. We care about product development. This has also been part of the core business. We work together with our local suppliers and partners to make sure that what we offer is inline with the destination and reflects its identity.

We market tourism in ways which reflect the natural, cultural and social integrity of the destination, and which encourage appropriate forms of tourism. We promote Transformative Storytelling and inspire people to want to see, experience places and people as they are.

We adopt equitable business practises, pay and charge fair prices, and build partnerships in ways in which risk is minimised and shared, and recruit and employ staff recognising international labour standards. We believe in fair payment throughout our operation. To be able to pay a fair price locally, within our own operation and pay our team members fairly as well, our cost may be higher than other operators. Keep this in mind when you see our prices, and remember that we also work on fair pricing for our travellers! You can read more about our fair pricing here.

We provide appropriate and sufficient support to small, medium and micro enterprises to ensure tourism-related enterprises thrive and are sustainable.

Everything that Ethical Travel Portal does has responsible tourism at its heart. Our story began back in 2007 when we were established around core ethical travel principles, with the goal of using tourism as a tool for development. A constant part of our decision-making process, this is the key to how we have evolved over time.


We believe in creating better places where the focus is on what these destinations need — not only what visitors want. We inspire and encourage mindful travellers who appreciate authentic experiences, and that is what we create by working hand-in-hand with local communities.


We first hit the road in January 2008, when eight excited travellers departed Oslo. Destination: The Gambia. Heading into the unknown, this adventurous bunch took the very first trip organised by ETP. That journey, and the many that came after, reflected precisely what we believe in — offering transformative experiences and creating a better understanding of the world we all share.


At the same time, wherever we go our trips support the communities we visit, fulfilling our mission as a company — to build bridges between people and contribute positively. Meaningful travel is one way to achieve that, by way of our very special immersive journeys curated with responsible tourism in mind.


We’ve come a long way, and not just in the miles we’ve travelled. Through our STOMP sustainability measurement tool, we’re creating transparency and innovating travel tech; via ETP Consult, we’re sharing our considerable knowledge in consulting on destination and product development; and most of all, we’re giving back — through handpicked projects around the world and our own charity.


To tell our stories and share what we’ve learned, we’re also building a community around responsible travel: Resonate. The Resonate Community is a collective of writers, readers, travellers, activists, and destinations, all committed to empowering and benefiting local people through tourism.


ETP is global in every respect; it’s not unusual for us to have team meetings spanning four continents. But though we may be working in different corners of the world as many nationalities with a diverse array of perspectives, we all have one goal in common — giving locals centre stage. We’ve come together as a large network of talented, committed people who fully embrace ETP’s core concept of responsible tourism.