Responsible Travel

ISV is committed to actively engaging volunteers in responsible behavior while on tour. We do this through carefully selecting our activities, accommodations and transport providers, encouragement from our tour leaders, working closely with our operators to improve standards, and always being open to improving and learning.  ISV’s Goals for the Volunteers’ Experiences on Tour:

• To discover and explore natural and cultural environments.
• To  gain an appreciation of natural and cultural environments.
• To engage in cultural and adventure based activities that challenge and promote personal growth and development.
• To enjoy positive group interactions in a safe and open environment through teambuilding activities; and
• To gain an understanding of the principles and practices of responsible tourism.

ISV tours are carefully structured to mix adventure, nature, culture and education. Certain activities are included from an educational standpoint to enable the volunteers to broaden their understanding of important facts about sites that they are visiting. For example, prior to snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, ISV has a customized 1.5 hour presentation on the reef including marine biology, threats to the coral reef and how to snorkel responsibly.  In Costa Rica, our volunteers participate in the Maleku indigenous tribe’s cultural performance which helps preserve a dying culture and contributes economically to the community while enabling volunteers to learn about the smallest tribes in Central America. 

Our selection of activity operators and hotels is an important part of responsible tourism. We do our best to select responsible operators given the options available, and always encourage volunteers to follow guidelines to minimize waste reduction, and water and energy consumption. For example, our  YHA accommodations in Wellington, New Zealand, has won numerous sustainability awards in the hospitality sector and we request a brief presentation for our groups on their environmental strategies and how volunteers can make their hostel stay as sustainable as possible.  In Thailand, ISV’s hilltribe trek operator East West Siam, and Lisu Lodge, have also been recognized internationally for their role in hiring and training local hilltribe people, providing local employment to the villagers as well as low-impact tourism.  In every ISV adventure tour, there are numerous examples such as these.

Our tour leaders are passionate about facilitating responsible travel and conveying our organization’s ethics. ISV tour leaders complete a rigorous training that includes a strong focus on the concepts of responsible tourism and how to best communicate to participants which travel tips they should apply when, and why.  Through positive role modeling and good information to broaden awareness about responsible travel, we hope our tour leaders can help guide volunteers on a travel experience that sharpens their minds to becoming more responsible travelers now and in the future.

During a site inspection of the ISV optional excursion to Machu Picchu along the magnificent Salkantay Inca Trail, our staff noticed an incredible amount of trash just off the trail that was left behind by tourists. We met with our guiding company, Ecotrek Peru, and created a plan  for responsible tourism signs to be placed along the trail, and for Ecotrek Peru to meet with other companies and guides with a call to action for improving hiking ethics and behavior.  ISV paid $400 USD to make the signs which were placed along the trail by an ISV group in June 2010. We sincerely hope that by inspiring hikers, and with support from the local guiding companies, the area can become pristine and given the respect it deserves.

ISV staff are constantly thinking outside the box for new things we can do to operate our programs more responsibly.  On one of our volunteer projects with Santos Tours, we noticed that the on-site transport for our volunteers was producing a large amount of black smoke. The idea for the use of biofuels in the transport was born.  To make the idea a reality, ISV has already donated over $8,000 USD with a total of $15,000 to see the project fully operational.  The initiative has since been awarded the entrepreneurial science prize at the University of Costa Rica.  Read more about the idea, the fundamentals behind biofuel and what’s happening next with the project here.

Coral reefs are one of the most important ecosystems on the planet. Tourism plays a crucial role in building awareness of their importance, and protecting the reef while enjoying it. On a recent site inspection in Fiji, ISV staff noticed that the local standards were very poor and very little guidance was given to snorkelers about how to minimize their impact on the environment while enjoying their activity.  ISV staff were inspired to create a simple Responsible Snorkeling info sheet which is explained to our participants and given to our accommodations and snorkeling activity provider.  Since then, this sheet has been provided to all our host countries that do snorkeling and our accommodations in Fiji and other operators have asked for some more copies! 

ISV Costa Rica has supported a number of coffee farming communities through our volunteer programs for many years.  In 2005, we noticed that many volunteers were buying coffee as gifts prior to returning home; mostly the mass-produced brands available at the airport.  An idea was generated to offer coffee produced by the communities we were supporting and in doing so, contribute to fair trade, organic and great tasting coffee!  To further assist the coffee farmers, ISV agreed to help with the purchase of additional roasting and packaging machinery, and to promote the coffee to volunteers. We recently sold our 1000th kg! The producers have gained greater autonomy and are earning a fair price for their coffee, while a portion of the funds go to a special projects initiative to help other communities in need.  Read the newsletter here for more details!  

As part of the Fiji Optional Excursion, ISV volunteers visit a Fijian village and help with community clean-up activities. They later visit the local school and enjoy some time with the school children. When we asked at the school how we could benefit the children, we received a request for children’s books in English. ISV employees in our Australia and New Zealand offices and our volunteers have answered the call, now regularly bringing books. This school now provides books to other schools that we are unable to visit in person. An overflow of books will also be directed to a local orphanage in Nadi.