The tour is offered by a local company which employs local people who enjoy a passion for travel and adventure. It gives you the opportunity to experience hospitality provided by the village folks. A resort such as Rainforest Edge grows most of the vegetables and fruits in their own organic gardens. Local experts are employed at some of the hotel Ayurvedic centres, which not only help good quality traditional treatments for the guests but it also provided employment opportunities for senior local citizens.
You can hire a tuk-tuk in a local village such as Talangama not only to enjoy a tour of the Village, some of our clients also visit some of the local village houses for an evening cup of tea. The tuk-tuk driver is happy that he has earned a revenue to take back home, also he is happy that his skills are developed by transporting visitors from the developed parts of the world.
We are mindful of the responsibilities legislatively and ethically to the environment and people. We are seeking to be the market leader in the quality of service, product innovation and sensitivity to people and the environment. We are emphatic that we will not 'squeeze' small local suppliers of goods and services to accede to demands for bargain prices. The prices of the tour reflect being able to pay fair prices to everyone in the supply chain. We have a policy of paying all suppliers promptly without delaying payments to maximise interest income of ease company cash flows. We recognise that for small local suppliers prompt payments are critical.
We recognise that the private sector can play a pivotal role in Sri Lanka for conservation; a few of the hotels you would be staying are partners to the Eternal Earth project, which is a program to contribute towards minimizing global warming and its effects for the benefit of mankind. You can get involved by simply investing to plant a tree during your stay at Lighthouse Hotel.
The tour operator has a publishing division, which has put out much useful wildlife publication, which are used as tools to spread the message for conservation.
The tour operator has provided employment for local people keen to work in the industry; we also offer internship for students who are keen to gain experience in the industry. We only use licensed tour guides, who have worked with the company for more than ten years and they have a god reputation for being reliable, friendly and especially a good overall knowledge if Sri Lanka culture, nature and history.
We hire services from local suppliers, such as safari jeeps, laundry services etc, so that your visit helps the local community. Some of the hotels buy vegetables, fruits and rice from the local village itself, so that it helps local producers.
The hotels provide English and customer service training to local students; successful participants are offered employment on a contract basis. The hotels also adopt a zero tolerance policy on plastics and polythene bags, water is re-cycled and you'll find that the hotels use energy saving bulbs in most of the cases. Signboards are well in place to alert you to avoid wastage of water and electricity.
Our guides stick to the designated paths inside National Parks, so that you do not disturb the wildlife, our guides do not play tapes of birdcalls etc to impress you by showing an extra species of bird.
We pay our guides fair wages, so you're relived that they do not force you for touristy shopping with the expectation of business commission. Our prices reflect that we pay our suppliers fair wages, so that we ensure quality of service and it’s a method of ensuring that you get all what you’ve been promised for.
We invite every traveler who books a vacation via us to send in a review. Because we don't run the vacations they're completely independent and unedited... remember to read between the lines though, as two people on the same vacation can have different views!
