"Adventure!"
by - Yoshihide, Tokyo, Japan
Responsible Travel in Thailand
What it means to Flight of the Gibbon
We recognize that tourism has an impact on the communities and environment where it is based. Our aim at TreeTop Asia™ is to help preserve the full ecology of the wild places we operate in by sharing our passion with our guests and increase their awareness of how unique and fragile the environment is. We strive to maximize employment, real skills and income-generating opportunities for local communities. We treat Thailand as our home and it shows. Working with ResponsibleTravel.com, we have developed a set guidelines to operate under.
Policy Aims
Responsible tourism businesses try to minimize the impact of tourism on the environment. The whole of Thailand can benefit from sustainable tourism, including those living in remote, rural areas that have very few other development opportunities.
Economic Responsibility
A portion of the fee for a TreeTop Asia™ tour is spent on developing and maintaining the local infrastructure and supporting several village based projects in the area. In addition to these projects we also strongly support projects that enable gibbons and other primate conservation and rehabilitation. With the help of TreeTop Asia™ and our international sponsors we run several micro-finance projects with village organizations, which have already helped the villagers to set up an organic farm and a briquette making industry. At the moment we are starting a volunteer program with international volunteers, who will teach English and athletics to the local schoolchildren. In our fair trade shop we sell products from several projects in Thailand.
Environmental Responsibility
A substantial fixed amount of income from a TreeTop Asia™ tour is spent on gibbon and other primate conservation projects. In addition, we do forest restoration work in overused and deforested areas.
TreeTop Asia™ tries to use as little plastic as possible, and we ask our customers to refill their water bottles instead of buying packaged mineral water every time. Our office is moving towards using no paper with everything done on computers or large whiteboards for scheduling. We have made a conscious effort to build our client base off the internet which reduces the number of brochures we produce. Flight of the Gibbon™ is also organizing environmental awareness programs with the local youth club for the surrounding villages.
Tourism can help to develop the economy of Thailand. But if not carefully managed, tourism can also have a damaging impact on the country’s natural and cultural heritage.
We make sure all our staff and clients are respectful of the pristine environment we are privileged to operate in. Our aim is to share our passion with our guests and increase their awareness of how unique and fragile the environment is.
Social Responsibility
By buying an adventure with TreeTop Asia™ trip you are supporting and maintaining the local infrastructure and supporting several village based projects in the area which we have initiated.
TreeTop Asia™ started its operations in the area by building the canopy adventure at Mai Kampong. The 2 km long canopy adventure while designed by N.Z. and Austrian experts, was fully built using local workers. It is extremely gratifying to take local villagers and teach them the safety systems required to do high rigging and difficult aerial construction safely. Many of the staff that helped build the Canopy adventure are now employed full time with the company as guides, office workers, cooks and maintenance staff. We hired most of our staff locally and gave them the necessary training. All our staff are Thai nationals and we regularly bring in foreign experts to do ongoing staff training and certification. All our senior guides are have international certification. The staff members have health and accident insurance, a provident fund saving account and share in the profit. The canopy adventure has also helped develop the nearby area through exposure to a larger tourist base. While we only operate day trips we have designed and are selling multi-day trips that include homestays in the village and a chance for clients to experience village and forest life and skills. All proceeds from the home-stays go directly to the village committee and the whole village benefits.
Every tourist has an impact, both positive and negative, on the local area. We carefully consider the impact our company and our customers have on the local communities and environment. The conservation projects that are funded by tourist dollars are led and managed by the local communities. We constantly solicit feedback from the village heads and other locals about how we are doing and what we can be doing better. We went to great lengths to design and build our canopy tour to have as little per-tourist impact on the environment as possible and the same care and consideration has gone into choosing which companies we partner with for our multi-day tours.
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