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Introduction to Responsible Travel
Responsible travel is about respecting and benefiting local people and the
environment. This can only be done by learning a little bit about the
country, the culture and even a few words of the local language before you
arrive. Responsible travel is more adventurous than "mass tourism" as it
requires interaction with local people, staying in small locally owned
hotels and sampling some of the delicious local cuisine. Things may not
always go to plan but they will certainly be more exciting and at the end
of your visit you will feel more fulfilled and informed about the places
and people you have visited having experienced a deeper and more real
travel experience.
Peru Treks fully supports the principles of responsible travel and
sustainable tourism and has been working hard to show that it is
possible to provide an excellent quality service whilst being culturally
sensitive, looking after our trekking staff and helping to conserve the environment. In our opinion the only way to improve
trekking standards and reduce the impact of tourism on the environment is to provide good
quality information, charge a
price that is fair and reasonable for the services provided (with no hidden
extras) and demonstrate that our company is working
towards conservation of the environment and looking after the well-being of
those persons who work for Peru Treks and those communities that we visit as part of
our tours.
Our Mission Statement
Peru Treks recognizes the fact that if tourism
is not correctly managed it can have a very negative effect on the local
people and culture, the environment and the local and national economy.
This is particularly true for a country such as Peru whose economy depends
so much on tourism.
It is obviously important to us that you have
a great time when you visit Peru, but this must not be at the expense of
our national treasures: our environment and our people. As a professional
company we have a duty to act responsibly and to encourage and promote
responsible tourism. The emphasis must be on actions right now rather than
just a list of things we would like to achieve in the future. Peru Treks
has many economic, environmental and social responsibilities which we have
included below in our Responsible Tourism Policy. Our goal is to become Peru's foremost responsible tour
operator, an achievement which in our opinion is very achievable with our
determination. However, visitors must also accept their role in helping us
to realize this goal. Our web page
How You Can Help
lists some tips for how you can contribute to being a responsible
traveller. Only if tourists and travel companies work together can we
ensure that tourism can really benefit local communities, providing
income, positive cultural exchange and a financial incentive to protect
the natural environment.
Peru Treks Responsible Tourism Policy
Economic Responsibility
Our most important responsibility is to ensure
that the financial benefits of tourism are passed down throughout the
entire company, including the office staff, guides, trekking staff
(porters, cooks, horsemen) and the mountain communities in which we work.
We have listed below some of the measures that we have taken to ensure
that this is done.
1. Peru Treks is a local trekking company with
offices in Cusco. The owner, Georgina Gonzalez, was born in Cusco. All of
our staff (with the exception of Mike Weston our reservations manager) are
Peruvian. All of our guides and tour leaders are from the Cusco region
with the majority coming from villages in the surrounding countryside. Our web page
About Us has a brief profile of each of our
team members.
2. Our porters have been carefully selected
from three communities in the mountain villages around Cusco. We employ
about 100 permanent porters and another 20 are employed as required. Two
porter groups come from the village of Amaru which is high up in the
mountains about a 2-hour walk from Pisac. One porter group is from the
Cuper Alta community beside Lake Piuray near the town of Chinchero, and
another porter group comes from Paucartambo, a 4-hour bus ride to the
north-east of Cusco in the mountains overlooking the jungle. For details
of porter pay and porter treatment see our
Porter Welfare page.
3. Peru Treks pays national sales tax (known
as IGV) which is currently 19%. In 2005 we paid over US$68,000 in IGV and
another US$14,300 in corporate tax (a 40% tax on profits). Our net profit
after tax was about US$21,450 (the equivalent of about US$10 per client)
of which US$9,000 was spent directly on community projects (US$6000 on
school construction and US$3000 on school supplies) and another
US$4,700 on porters welfare (sleeping bags, warm jackets, back supports &
shoes). In 2006 we paid over US$73,000 in IGV and another US$15,700 in
corporate tax. Our net profit after tax was about US$23,550 (the
equivalent of about US$9 per client) of which US$10,000 was spent directly
on community projects (US$5000 on school construction, US$3500 on school
supplies, US$1500 on paying for a 3 day holiday for 26 kids from
Tiracanchi to visit Machu Picchu) and another US$3200 on porter welfare
(life insurance, backpacks, sleeping bags for new porters etc). US$9000
was also spent on a 10yr old 4x4 which is use to visit the more remote
mountain schools. In 2007 we hope to increase our expenditure on community
projects by about 15%. This is probably the highest tax paid by any tour company in
Peru for an equivalent turnover. We pay
such high taxes because all of our clients are direct sales by the
internet. We do not work with intermediaries or operate treks for overseas
tour companies. If you buy a trek outside of Peru you will probably pay
sales tax in your own country. When an overseas tour company sends the
money to a Peruvian tour company who will actually operate your trek, this
payment is exempt from tax (basically so you don't end up paying sales tax
twice). That means that if you buy a trek or tour with a tour company
outside of Peru you are
not contributing towards the Peruvian economy in the form of sales taxes.
This type of service is known as "receptive tourism" where
Peruvian companies
operate treks for overseas companies rather than finding their clients
directly. Of course, by buying a trek outside of Peru you will still be
helping the economy by providing work for local people. We estimate that
over 75% of services provided by Peruvian tour operators are "receptive"
and do not contribute directly to the economy. Peru Treks pays sales taxes
on 100% of our Inca Trail services. When we buy your Inca Trail trek
permit a copy of the receipt is automatically sent to the tax offices, and
since all of our clients are "direct sales" we have to pay taxes for every
client. On average in 2006, US$33 of your trek price went to pay taxes. This is a big
contribution towards the economy as many companies are exempt from paying
sales taxes, and those that are not exempt spend a lot of time and energy
trying to avoid paying their taxes.
4. Where possible we purchase equipment
locally. Obviously all fresh produce and food is bought in local markets
and small shops. Camping equipment such as dining tents, kitchen tents,
porter backpacks, duffle bags, porter jackets, biodegradable soap are all
fabricated in Cusco. Porters shoes and back support belts are made in
Lima. Our tents and sleeping bags are manufactured by Doite in Chile
rather than using overseas makes. Only our portable toilets and special
biodegradable toilet bags are manufactured in the USA. Therefore about
99.99% of all income remains within Peru.
5. We contribute directly to many community
projects in the Cusco region including the construction of two schools in
mountain communities. For more details see the section below on Social
Responsibility.
Environmental Responsibility
1. Peru treks has a zero litter tolerance. On
our treks all rubbish and waste material is carried out and disposed of in
suitable facilities in the main towns and cities. The waste is divided
into organic (green bags) and inorganic (black bags). We never bury waste
along the route of the trail (see below for exception) and certainly never
dump rubbish behind a hedge.
2. When campsites do not have proper flush
toilets we take a portable toilet and toilet tent. We use special
biodegradable toilet bags which are carried out (Inca Trail) or buried on
more remote treks.
3. We give all of our clients biodegradable
soap to wash with (made locally) and wash the dishes with biodegradable
detergent. Dishes are washed in a bowl using filtered water and the dirty
water are passed through a fine mesh to filter out any solids before being
returned to a suitable outlet (sink, sewer or river).
4. Only clean burning fuel (butane gas) is
used for cooking. Kerosene is not permitted due to the possible dangers to
the environment caused by spillage. Camp fires are not permitted on the
Inca Trail or in areas considered to be a fire risk.
5. Travellers are encouraged to bring water
purification tablets or water filters on the trek as this reduces the use
of plastic bottles and also reduces the weight carried.
6. When our clients come to our office to pay
their trek balance we provide them with a written trek briefing. This
briefing includes information about Machu Picchu Sanctuary regulations
which aims to protect the environment within the protected areas of the
Machu Picchu Sanctuary.
7. We reduce paper wastage in our office by
not producing any form of paper brochures. All communications are by email
and paper mail is rarely sent or received. We have reduced the need for
paper in our office by the use of computer technology. Reservation details
required for the purchase of Inca Trail permits and train tickets are
transferred to the relevant companies by computer disk.
8. We have an ongoing training of our staff to
ensure high standards of environmental care and responsible behaviour. At
the end of every trek our clients are asked to fill out a trek report
which allows as to monitor and highlight any areas of our service that can
be improved upon.
Social Responsibility
1. We encourage our clients to act in a
responsible manner. Our web page
How You Can Help
lists some tips for how you can contribute to being a responsible
traveller. Our guides are professionally qualified and have a great
passion for their work. Not only will they tell you about the history of
the places you will visit but they will also be able to tell you about the
culture and the local traditions and superstitions. Most of our guides are
fluent in the Quechua language (the native language used in the
countryside) and all of them have the ability to communicate in Quechua to
an intermediate standard.
2. We employ local people and pay them a fair
wage helping to put money into the local economy. All trekking staff are
paid punctually at the end of each trek. Office staff are paid monthly and
receive free health insurance for them and their families, pensions, and
bonuses at the start of the school year, independence day and Christmas.
All porters receive free accident and life insurance which covers them
throughout the year and not just when they are working on the Inca Trail.
3. We treat our employees with the respect
that they deserve and expect our office staff and guides to do the same
with our porters. We listen to comments and complaints from our porters
and, in the last three years, have dismissed two guides because we felt
that they were not treating our porters respectfully.
We have worked hard to provide the best
possible working conditions for our porters which include limiting the
load that we give to the porters to carry to 20kg. We provide our porters
with tented accommodation with a waterproof floor, backpacks with padded
shoulder and waist straps, shoes, warm jackets, sleeping bags, foam mats,
and plenty of nutritious food.
4. We contribute directly to many community
projects in the Cusco region. In the last 2 years we have been responsible
for the construction of two schools in mountain villages, we continue to
pay the full salary of one village school teacher, and have carried out
more than 50 distributions of school equipment and second hand clothing.
We have set up a home-stay program where visitors can spend the night with
a Quechua family in the village of Chinchero and are currently working
with the community of Amaru to help promote a more wide-spread home-stay
program involving the entire community.
To show that we are actually committed
to these social development programs and not just all talk please
visit our Community Projects page.
NEXT >>
Porter Welfare >>
The information provided above is specific to
Peru Treks and is original material. The work is subject to copyright and
cannot be reproduced in part or in whole by any other company without
specific written permission from Peru Treks.
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