Travel is the world’s best teacher. And here at Collette, we believe that travel should be a force for good. We continue our pledge to our worldwide partners to travel with social responsibility in mind. This means working together to take care of the places that we live, work, and travel.
World Tourism Day is about recognizing that equitable jobs in tourism increase social inclusion, peace, and security. We support our partners and the global communities they come from. When you travel with us, you’ll know that we designed every trip our values in mind.
Tourism creates 10% of the world’s jobs. We partner with local experts and take you to local vendors not just to offer the most authentic experience, but spread the economic benefits to the places we visit. Learn to appreciate Estonia’s bogs with a local naturalist. Shop for local crafts and produce at Peru’s outdoor markets. Be inspired by the courage of local survivors of acid attacks in India at the Sheroes Hangout café.
Our nonprofit, the Collette Foundation, supports communities in need through hunger and education initiatives. In South Africa, we continuously partner with the students of the Knysna Education Trust to help build new schools, outfit classrooms, and make sure students have the food, clean water, and supplies they need for school.
We are working to reduce our carbon footprint, and preserve the natural wonders we love to visit around our planet. From vast savannas to thundering waterfalls, we want to ensure that natural beauty can be enjoyed for generations to come. In our office, our Green Team has led us in ditching single-use products, increasing recycling, reducing paper and energy use, and more. By 2020, every one of our small group Explorations tours will be carbon neutral. We added a tour that explores Switzerland entirely by train and Scandinavia by a ship powered by marine gas oil. We support the preservation of South Dakota’s unique plant and animal species found at the national parks we love to explore.
We travel in harmony with animals. Every interaction our guests will have with animals around the world are based on the ABTA’s five freedoms: freedoms from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, or disease; freedom to express normal behavior; and freedom from fear and distress. All of our partners involving animals support these pillars.
We know you love this big, amazing world as much as we do. That’s why we invite you, on World Tourism Day and every day, to take care of it together when you travel with us.
Learn more about Corporate Social Responsibility at Collette here.