Yoga Travel Responsible Tourism Policy

You might also be interested in our travellers' guidelines and our free carbon offsetting programme.

EGYPT (Red Sea Paradise)

Economic policy
All our accomodation and transport in Egypt is locally managed and owned. We also visit local Bedouin craft shops in the desert which provide employment for nearly 200 Bedouin women. On visits to Mount Sinai all our guides are from the local Gebeliya tribe.

Specific opportunities to buy local crafts and visit shops are pointed out by our tour leaders. We remind clients to bear in mind that prices in Egypt tend to be cheap; it's often not worth the protracted bargaining that might reduce the price by a small amount.

Environmental Responsibility
For each client booking with Yoga Travel, we pay to offset the carbon of their flight. Our clients are also advised to try to minimise their water consumption (taking a shower as opposed to a bath, and only one a day) and when doing activities in the sea they are briefed as per South Sinai Diving Association regulations: don't touch or take any coral, don't throw litter. Neither should they anchor a boat on a coral reef or collect shells.

In the desert similar conditions apply: no littering, bury all faecal material and burn the toilet paper. Plants in the desert are untouchable; they belong to the Bedouins who know exactly when to cut them for fire or to use them for any of their tasks. Hunting is similarly strictly forbidden.

In our UK office all paper is recycled, and we also use energy efficient bulbs. Our website is our primary source of marketing and booking (clients can fill in booking forms online and email them), reducing reliance on printed matter.

Social Policy
Before the trip starts, many people are concerned about security in Egypt. Our website, therefore, refers to the foreign office's 'Know before you go' site for accurate security advice. Being an Islamic country, others often ask about the behavioural and dress expectations in Egypt: our office gives advice and all clients are briefed on things such as what to wear in a mosque or how to dress on the beach.

Similarly, although Egypt has a nearly 8 million tourists a year and is well accustomed to foreigners, Yoga Travel clients are briefed on what to wear in certain situations, bearing in mind that Egyptian people are particularly conservative in the countryside. Customers are also briefed on bargaining etiquette and the perspective of Islamic societies towards the west, and particularly towards women.

We have several opportunities to visit local social projects run by the Bedouin community that populate Sinai.

MOROCCO (see our On Hendrix's Trail holiday)

Economic policy
Again, all our accomodation and transport is locally managed and owned. As well as using local restaurants and facilities we also visit local Berber Argan co-operatives that provide employment for local women and help to preserve the Argan (link) forest of southern Morocco.

Specific opportunities to buy local crafts and visit shops are pointed out by our tour leaders. We remind clients to bear in mind that prices in Morocco tend to be cheap; it's often not worth the protracted bargaining that might reduce the price by a small amount.

Environmental Responsibility
For each client booking with Yoga Travel, we pay to offset the carbon of their flight. Our clients are also advised to try to minimise their water consumption, to try to minimise the use of plastic bags when shopping and to turn off electrical appliances when not in the room.

Our Riad in Sidi Embarque collects rain water for use in their toilets and electricity is sourced via solar panels. In our UK office all paper is recycled, and we also use energy efficient bulbs. Our website is our primary source of marketing and booking (clients can fill in booking forms online and email them), thus reducing reliance on printed matter.

Social Policy
By operating with small groups Yoga Travel holidays have less of an impact on our host countries and their resources. It also allows us to get more of a feel for the local peopl and their way of life.

Being an Islamic country, others often ask about the behavioural and dress expectations in Morocco: our office gives advice and all clients are briefed on things such as what to wear in a mosque or how to dress on the beach. Before the trip starts, many people are concerned about security. Our website, therefore, refers to the foreign office's 'Know before you go' site for accurate security advice.

Yoga Travel clients are briefed on what to wear in certain situations, bearing in mind that Moroccans are more conservative in the countryside. Customers are also briefed on bargaining etiquette and the perspective of Islamic societies towards the west, and particularly towards women.

We have several opportunities to visit local social projects run by the Berber community in southwest Morocco.

 

 

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