Cancun whale shark vacation, Mexico

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION
We have contacts with several eco-hotels. The first hotel in Cancun, El Rey del Caribe, is a good example of an eco-hotel. For example this hotel has solar panels, reuses water, has some dry toilets in common areas, recycle plastic, cardboard, glass, organic food, etc
Customers who have a vegan diet or are vegetarian have the opportunity to let us know beforehand. This way we can provide vegan or vegetarian meals for them with the same quality of our main meal. Even if there are other diets, we try our best to take it in consideration.

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE
The Whale shark tour works mostly on providing awareness on the importance of protecting the oceans, corals reefs and wildlife. Especially the whale sharks and other species in the area, such as the manta rays, marine turtles, dolphins, whales, etc. The tour has a maximum of 10 people. This is to be able to provide personalized attention and awareness on protecting our natural resources.

In this trip we work with local hotels that run a recycle program for the solid waste they produce, they also have a compost management system. This trip has implemented not to use plastic bottles, but to use reusable cups for people drinking water on trip.

During the tour we also make sure that we don´t disturb the whale sharks. Our nature experts have strict rules that touching the whale sharks is not allowed and that our customers have to keep a distance of at least 2 to 3 meters.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
We contribute to social projects that benefit the community. An example of this is that we support and contribute to the ´One Dollar Shark Conservation project', led by local researcher Rafael de la Parra. He has been researching and working on whale shark conservation for the past 15 years. Every person that enjoys this trip with us is contributing with Rafael, the conservation and the research of these species.

Our promise to support the local community is to hire as much local guides and drivers for all the tours that we are offering. In case of the whale shark tour we hire local people. There are multiple benefits for this. The first one being that the local people understand the value of conserving the wildlife like the whale sharks. It is positive for the environment but also since this brings job opportunities for them. This is what we promise to do our best to support our community.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
Our staff has 95 % of Mexicans and in the trips we run we work with 100 % local persons mostly from Mayan communities. In our office, we do not have a specific workplace diversity strategy but we are totally open and currently have a lot of people working with us of different religion, gender and sexual orientation. Regarding equal employment have actually more than 50 % with women working with us.