Ethiopia photography tour

Planet

Both our company and our location guides foster a deep respect for the environment. We visit many locations throughout the world and encourage sensitive and sustainable tourism with a 'leave no trace' policy. We encourage and welcome opportunities with our guests to increase environmental awareness and dialogue throughout our trips.

We consider it a huge privilege to be able to visit the world’s wild places and at all times we endeavour to respect local cultures, the natural beauty and fragile environment. At the beginning of the trip we advise and discuss issues such as appropriate dress, local religious and cultural beliefs, language and exchange, disposal and re-cycling of litter in wild places and local environmental issues.
This information is also available on our web site.

Throughout our vacation we will be working alongside with local guides and location experts who also speak English. We travel in small groups often splitting into smaller clusters of two or three persons in order to reduce intrusion on the environment and local communities whilst photographing. With a few exceptions when we visit iconic locations, we tend to avoid main tourist areas, concentrating instead on the less visited communities thus economically supporting innovation and a responsible tourism economy. Our photography reflects the special access we have to some less explored locations that local people have shown us. We encourage an immersive approach to the practice of photography and firmly believe that exploration by foot with ample time to engage with place is key, to the success of our trips.

People

We are able work alongside local guides when ever possible throughout our visit. Their knowledge of and respect for, the local environment is unsurpassed. We foster an attitude that promotes responsible tourism as a sustainable development in the countries we visit. We engage with local hospitality, promoting interaction with our hosts and locals throughout this tour.

Chris Roche, our guide for Ethiopia, grew up in Africa where his father worked as a professor of forestry and a consultant on sustainable development projects.  His family set up a scholarship fund for Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources. Our local partners, Tesfa Tours, works closely with local communities to generate sustainable improvements in their livelihood through the development of their own tourism-related enterprises, while also contributing to the protection of their physical and cultural environments. Thus community tourism is not merely tourism that benefits the communities, but also tourism in which a part of the product is owned by the communities.

This means that not only do benefits (including income) flow directly to the community, but that they also learn to make decisions and run their own businesses. The result is a dignified and well balanced relationship between the service giver: the community, and the service receiver: the guest.