Although tourism is a vital source of revenue to most countries, the very things we travel to experience and enjoy – landscape, society and cultural heritage – may be endangered by our presence.  We want to make sure that we do our best to minimise our negative impact and make the most of the benefits that tourism has to offer.

SUPPORTING LOCAL PEOPLE

We try to ensure we leave as much money in the local community as possible. We seek out independent local business, particularly family run hotels and restaurants.  Where it is possible and practical, we stay in places with authentic local character and eat in restaurants where food is locally sourced. We visit areas often neglected by other visitors and buy produce from markets, street sellers and local vendors. Our tour managers will make picnics of local foodstuffs and wines.

All of our tours include tips for services to our parties which means that we can ensure they are distributed as fairly as possible. We tip drivers and local guides fairly and appropriately for their efforts.

We usually pay full entrance price to museums and archaeological sites, even for our older customers who may be entitled to free entry. (EU Citizens over 65 year of age generally have free admission).  Any surplus payments are considered a direct donation to the sites we visit on our tours.

RESPECTING LOCAL CULTURE

Visiting other cultures must sometimes be treated with care.  We are all ambassadors of our own. Please dress in a way that will not offend or give inappropriate signals. Our local guides will often inform parties about current local customs, traditions, religion, diet and every day life in the countries we visit and we encourage contact with local people as much as possible.

You may well enjoy the satisfaction of negotiating (haggling!) to an outcome satisfactory to both parties, and by doing so will be engaging in the local way of doing things.

Physical contact such as handshakes between men and women is unacceptable in strict Muslim countries, where it is also impolite to use your left hand for contact with other people or food.

• do try to dress according to what is acceptable locally.
• do ask before taking a photograph and don’t take it if permission is denied. Some people may ask you to pay, since it is a way that they can earn a little money.
• don’t point your camera in the direction of military or government buildings – you may have your film seized, or risk arrest.

ANDANTE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AWARD

For the past few years, we have set aside an annual sum as a contribution to an archaeological project.  So far, we’ve helped with:

• The site of Volubilis in Morocco. http://www.sitedevolubilis.com

• A geophysical survey at Kerkenes Dag in Anatolia, central Turkey –   you can visit the site on our Anatolia & Cappadocia tour. http://www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr/
• Didactic information panels for the prehistoric site of Nola, a village engulfed by an eruption   of Vesuvius in the Bronze Age. http://www.areanoloana.it

• The Stonehenge Riverside Project conducted by Professor Mike Parker Pearson and colleagues from Sheffield and other British Universities - excavations of the classic monuments of Stonehenge, its avenue, the Stonehenge cursus and the Stonehenge palisade, together with a long barrow and a round barrow. http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge

• Via Consolare Project in Pompeii, which documents and explains the chronology and stratigraphic record of properties along the length of this major roadway on the western side of Pompeii.  With the support of the Andante Travels Archaeological Award, the project was able to carry out its most successful field season to date in the summer of 2009.  This helped to cover the purchase of equipment and supplies vital both for excavation and architectural recording and analysis - everything from cameras to trowels to drawing frames to buckets and artefact storage. The equipment was used to produce exciting, previously unknown information about the urban development of the city and the processes of construction during its final days. http://www.sfsu.edu/~pompeii/research2009.html
• The  Lamanai Archaeological Project in Belize. The will be used to train a local person from the area as a pottery conservator, which would in turn enable the small collection of artefacts to be exhibited with a small fee being charged to visitors.  This would have the knock-on benefit of being able to employ a full-time Park ranger to work with potential visitors to the collections.  This was an attractive project which gave obvious opportunities to local people and enabled other funds to be raised as a result.
• This year we were very pleased  to award the prize to the Catacombs of Anubis project at Saqqara in Egypt led by Dr. Paul Nicholson of Cardiff University.  This  project focuses on the bizarre industry of animal mummification that produced offerings for Anubis, the ancient Egyptian God of the Dead. Although animal catacombs are quite common in Egypt there have been no large scale studies of canid remains from such sites and it is estimated that millions of mummified dogs were sacrificed here. The funds made available by Andante will help with  radiocarbon dating in the forthcoming season. 

RECYCLING & RE-USE

From the paper and supplies we use in our office to planning our picnic kits, we re-use and recycle whenever we can. We use fair-trade products for our tea rounds and buy environmentally friendly products for the loo. On our tours we try to ensure that waste is disposed of in the most effective way possible.

In 2011 we intend to drastically reduce the amount of plastic consumption on our tours.  Those of you who travel with Andante probably appreciate the supply of fresh bottled water that we provide on a daily basis on the coach, but you may not realise the cost in plastic waste. This year we have run a very successful pilot scheme on several of our most popular tours, in an effort to reduce this. We bought special 10-litre collapsible jerry cans to put into the hold of the coaches and fill them from the public drinking fountains that are so plentiful (and carefully regulated) in Italy and Sicily.

In the past, travellers have been wary of drinking from public supplies.  However in Italy, public drinking water is strictly controlled and in many instances comes from the same sources as the branded bottled variety.  For many of us, a common sight when travelling to that country is that of families queuing up at village taps, filling containers with beautifully fresh, cool mountain spring water.  We have decided to emulate this and if the pilot project succeeds, then we will adopt this in other countries where we can be sure that water supplies are drinkable (European destinations).

OFF- SETTING THE CARBON PRODUCED BY YOUR FLIGHT

Andante’s early involvement in the setting up of the United Nations Sustainable Tourism initiative and also in AITO’s Responsible Tourism scheme has led us to apply our beliefs and principles to all our projects whenever possible.

In 2011 we will be offsetting all our flights, our customers' as well as our staff's using the TICOS Scheme (Tourism Industry Carbon Offset Service).

We offset the emissions by paying a carbon levy and chosen to support a scheme with admirably low administration charges, which means that the majority of the donation goes straight to a specific environmental project, in this case to a solar energy scheme just outside Tirana in Albania. Some of our Albania groups expressed an interest in visiting this whilst they were there - and did so!

You can find more information about this on the TICOS website www.ticos.co.uk and we want to encourage you to join us in this venture, so if you would like to make a further contribution of your own, please do so by adding to your balance payment.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL TOURISM

Andante jealously guards the special privileges so often extended to us by archaeological directors and excavators. Help us by remembering:

• do respect laws against flash photography as the light can cause damage to frescoes
• don’t walk on areas under excavation
• don’t walk on or near excavation edges as this can damage the sections
• never succumb to the temptation to remove any object. It alters and diminishes the site and you might face prosecution for taking even a modest “antiquity” out of a country.

Useful tips in preparation for travelling

You may well enjoy learning something of the people and their customs and present culture, specific behaviour and dress codes before arriving. Learning a few simple phrases (good morning/day/evening/night, thank you, how are you) leads to memorable encounters with local people and is invariably welcomed – it creates much goodwill.

Make sure you know how to turn off your camera auto-flash and don’t forget to pack a water bottle and, if you use a camera or lap top while abroad, take rechargeable batteries. Please say to plastic if you can possibly do without it (in some parts of Jordan, the trees seem to bear not fruit, black plastic bags).

SUPPORTING LOCAL PEOPLE

Some of the countries we visit are very poor. Small change which may mean very little to us can make a great difference to those who are working there. It is often only embarrassment or the fear of attracting unwanted attention which stops us from giving to those who are clearly in need.  Hawkers selling postcards outside a site, for example, may seem to pester tourists disembarking from a coach, but their postcards are often the only ones to be had, may be very good value, and the money we give may support their entire family. Using services offered by local people helps bring much-needed money into their economy. Having said this, there are always those out to play the system, and it can be as well to be aware of local scams!

HELPING TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT

Please respect the environment: many places are ill-equipped to deal with the waste we produce. Get rid of excess packaging before you travel and take what you can home with you. Rubbish collection and recycling are in their infancy in some countries.  Remember that many sewage systems cannot cope with manufactured products, including toilet paper, in which case a bin is provided.

• don’t pick plants or flowers and keep to footpaths
• don’t buy items made from endangered species (ivory, animal skins or coral)
• don’t buy artefacts which purport to be ancient, nor express any interest in them. If they are ancient it will encourage site-robbing, and if not you have been misled
• do avoid wasting water. It may cause resentment for visitors to be seen squandering a commodity which local people trudge miles to collect

OTHER WAYS TO TRAVEL

Air travel is convenient but extremely costly to the environment. We already offer holidays excluding flights, giving you the opportunity to explore other forms of transport to and from a tour. In 2011 we are continuing to run tours using rail (Dordogne, Provence) or coach (Roman Germany) and we will carry on researching other means of group travel for our tours.

Andante Travels was a founder member of the Tour Operators’ Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, backed by the United Nations, and of the Responsible Tourism committee of AITO (Association of Independent Tour Operators).

Links

TICOS –   http://www.ticos.co.uk/projects/project_id/tp006.htm

The Travel Foundation -  http://www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/greener-business/

Water Aid  www.wateraid.org

The Kerkenes News www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr