The Better Travel Photography
Responsible Travel and Environmental Policy
Steve Davey passionately believes that done properly, travel can have a positive effect on the countries you travel in. Though it is always important to travel sensitively: both toward the environment you are travelling in, and also towards the people and cultures that you encounter.
We are fortunate to be associated with Intrepid Travel who have a comprehensive responsible travel and environmental policy. By virtue of engaging them to provide our land arrangements, we can be sure that we are having a more beneficial effect on the world.
In addition to conforming to the Intrepid Travel policies, we have our own initiatives, concerning travel photography and also concerning the impact of our business on the world.
The impact of travel photography
Just because you want to take pictures of people and things does not mean that you cannot travel responsibly. In fact, Steve believes that the act of taking a picture can be a great motivator to break down the boundaries and a fantastic excuse to approach people and simply say hello!
Steve actively educates clients of any cultural issues concerning photography in the countries that we are travelling in, and instructs explicitly against 'stealing' pictures of the people they want to photograph. The result is a better experience for both the person taking the picture and the subject of any portrait.
Although counselled against giving money to beggars, clients are informed that sometimes and in some countries a small amount of money is expected if you are going to take someone's picture, and this issue is always discussed on the tours. People are instructed to always act sensitively, with this issue and also when photographing in religious and culturally sensitive places.
Although the group sizes on these tours are never more that 12 people, we also divide this further at sensitive times to make sure that we are not swamping a person or place with too many photographers.
Steve accompanies the tours, and gives clients the benefits of his experience at respecting local cultures, and also seeks to lead by example when it comes to both his photography and interactions with local people.
The over-riding rule on these tours is that it is better not to take a picture than to cause offence when taking it!
Curbing the negatives
It would be facile to think that there is not a negative aspect for the environment to travel, or indeed for doing business in general. There are however ways to mitigate these, and these are the ways that we try to do this with the Better Travel Photography range of tours.
1). Engaging a responsible operator for land arrangements: As a very small operator, running only a few tours a year we cannot check all of the hotels and ground arrangements for ourselves. By using Intrepid Travel for our land arrangements we can be confident in their responsible travel and environmental policies. This is expanded upon below.
2). Carbon-balancing all flights taken in the course of these tours: for the new 2010 season, we undertake to carbon balance all of our international and domestic flights through climatecare.org We also encourage clients to carbon balance the flights that they take, whether through the Intrepid Travel Carbon offset initiative, or through a separate scheme.
3). Responsible office policy: a vast amount of carbon emissions come from offices, and we actively seek to minimise these with a comprehensive environmental policy for our office.
Reduced emissions from commuting: both Steve Davey's professional photography and the Better Travel Photography Tours businesses are run from a home office, wiping out commuting emissions at a stroke.
Reduced emissions from heating: running the business from home drastically cuts the extra heating costs arising from having a separate office.
Comprehensive recycling policy: all papers, ink cartridges, electronic goods and other recyclables from the office are recycled using local facilities.
Reducing waste: we have a policy to minimise printing – especially for colour printing of photographs which uses a considerable amount of harmful inks. We favour low voltage light sources and actively switch these off when not in use. We also use individual switching to allow computer and other peripherals to be disconnected when not in use.
All of our tour information and trip notes are supplied digitally, and we don't have a print brochure.
Digital photography: as an comprehensive adopter of digital photography we have drastically cut the pollution associated with film manufacture, processing and printing.
The Intrepid Travel Responsible Travel Policy
Intrepid Travel has a comprehensive and well developed responsible travel policy, which is one of the main reasons that they were selected to provide the land arrangements for these trips. This doesn't just benefit the locals in the countries we travel to: by sourcing local guides and staying in locally owned properties, our tours manage to get closer to our destination, which helps to give you a more connected and empathetic experience on your holiday.
With the Better Travel Photography tours we wholeheartedly all of the Intrepid Travel initiatives towards responsible travel. As stated by Intrepid Travel, the main features of this policy are as follows:
• We favour grass roots travel using local public transport where possible – which minimises demand for special tourist vehicles and fuel. If we do need to use private transport we ensure that we use local operators and drivers giving employment to locals.
• We choose small-scale locally owned accommodation and homestays where available and local restaurants and markets for dining, retaining revenue in local communities.
• Our group leaders facilitate communication of our values to travellers and local communities, educating them in sustainable tourism practices.
• We employ local guides to aid travellers' understanding of local culture and etiquette.
• Our small groups allow travellers to experience cultures first hand, offering greater opportunity for cross- cultural understanding.
• We are committed to putting back into the communities and regions we visit by supporting development and conservation projects in these areas. We achieve this through supporting The Intrepid Foundation and our travellers are invited to contribute. We also visit a local community project on our trip and encourage our travellers to support local business when buying souvenirs and other items.
At the welcome group meeting, our passengers receive the standard Intrepid Travel introduction, which includes all aspects of the Intrepid Travel Responsible Travel policy. This includes initiatives for minimising the environmental and cultural effect of their trip. These policies are also incorporated into our trip notes, and guests are expected to conform to them when they are travelling.
In addition to conforming to, and endorsing the Intrepid Travel policies, we have our own initiatives, primarily concerning the impact of travel photography and also concerning the environmental impact of our business.
The full Intrepid Travel policy towards travelling responsibly can be seen on our About Intrepid page and by clicking here.
The Intrepid Foundation
Since Intrepid Travel commenced operating in 1989 they have been committed to giving something back to the communities we visit. One way has been through our support for local humanitarian, development and conservation projects. Many of their travellers want to contribute something too. To make things easier they established The Intrepid Foundation. All donations to The Intrepid Foundation will be matched by Intrepid Travel dollar for dollar, up to AU$5,000 per donor and a total of AU$300,000 for all donors in each financial year. And every cent gets there as Intrepid Travel pays for all the administration costs. Donating is simple and secure. Please ask your group leader for information on the projects we support in the region, through The Intrepid Foundation; or go to their website: www.theintrepidfoundation.org
We endorse the Intrepid Foundation, and people travelling with us are encouraged to visit any supported projects wherever possible on our itineraries, and also to consider contributing to the foundation on their return. The specific visits to local projects and the various projects supported by Intrepid Travel are detailed on the individual tour pages.