Kaya Responsible Travel is proud to announce that Kaya is now a signatory to the Future of Tourism’s guiding principles! Indeed, the principles have been put forth by the newly formed coalition outlining a bold vision for the future of tourism. Including, one that retains the integrity of destinations, while promoting inclusivity and equality, and maximizing positive impacts for communities and environments, as well as fostering collaborative change.
A Better Outlook for Tourism
For over a decade, Kaya’s strategy has been focused around working in the field of international development while providing educational opportunities for participants in non-traditional destinations worldwide. All of our initiatives have been community-driven and the local communities are at the forefront of everything we do.
The newly formed coalition has put in place a guide of 13 principles that are aligned with many of our current practices. In general, the principles outline building a healthier future for tourism while protecting the local destinations and their people. Some principles and how Kaya’s operations have been centered around them include:
- See the destinations as a whole – the placements we offer are community-driven and include a cultural component to ensure communities stay at the heart of everything we do.
- Sustainable best practices – every placement is selected and evaluated to ensure long-term benefit to the local community and self-sufficiency.
- Collaboration – Kaya works in partnership with local organizations, charities, NGOs, municipalities and community groups working to address a local issue.
- Quality over Quantity – Projects have been carefully selected to ensure a genuine need for assistance. We also custom match every participant to projects to make sure the right set of skills are matched to the right projects.
- Fair income distribution – We thrive for a balance between ensuring fair and honest support of our projects and communities and select projects accordingly.
- Reduce tourism burden – The social impact of sending participants in the community is at the core of everything we do.
- Economic success – As a social enterprise, we ensure that all actors in the supply chain are local and that the locals benefit from having participants in-country.
- Climate impact mitigation – Kaya we recognize the importance of reducing your Carbon Footprint. We partner with some reforestation programs and initiatives to ensure a balance.
- Close the loop on resources – We encourage participants to bring their own reusable water bottles, have eliminated plastic promotional materials for bamboo straws amongst many others…
- Contain tourism land use – In general, we work in non-traditional destinations where over-tourism has not yet happened and local-owned businesses are still striving.
- Diversify source market – We recruit participants from all over the world and encourage local travelling whenever possible.
- Protect sense of place – By working with the local communities, we make sure that what is best for the locals is at the heart of what we do.
- Operate business responsibly – As a social enterprise, we make sure any profit is reinvested within the local communities whenever possible.
At Kaya, we are happy to see that a coalition of different bodies is now pursuing a shared global mission, which places destinations’ needs at the center of tourism’s new future.
As a signatory to the Future of Tourism, we commit to continue to align our strategies with these principles and build a better future for all. Learn more at www.futureoftourism.org #FutureofTourism
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