Morocco highlights vacation, with added comfort

Planet

We provide travelers with reusable fabric tote bags. The bags are made by women in the south west of Morocco, who are provided with learning materials and training in sewing and embroidery. Pollution was highlighted as an important issue in Morocco during the 2016 UN Climate Change Conference. Following the conference, the government banned the use of plastic bags in supermarkets and has supported initiatives from all industries to reduce waste.

All travel on this trip through Morocco, which is completed by private vehicle, includes a large container of drinking water. Travelers are encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottle so that they can refill it from this container. More and more hotels are also providing water for guests to refill their own bottles. This reduces the number of single-use plastic water bottles disposed of by our travelers.

People

Our trips maximize the opportunity for travelers to engage meaningfully with local culture and communities. Many experiences on our trips also support traditional cultural practices – whether artisanal, culinary or otherwise. In turn, this helps to sustain and preserve these traditional practices so that future generations may continue to learn, enjoy and benefit from them. This trip includes two meals with local families in Fes and Khenifra, providing opportunities for sharing recipes and stories, while directly supporting two local families. During our tours of the medinas in Rabat, Meknes, Fes and Marrakech we choose to visit local artisans who produce local crafts using traditional methods.

In 2017 we noticed that while many of our office staff were women, we had a much lower number of women leading our trips. Our local teams found that women faced many difficulties becoming tour leaders in places like Morocco due to public perception, family concerns and the inability to obtain required licensing because of government restrictions. Our Moroccan operations team successfully lobbied the local government to include women in the government-regulated tour guide licensing program. From having no women leading trips in Morocco two years ago, we now have 15% female leaders with plans for more to join our team soon.