Food:

Trying the Vietnamese cuisine will undoubtedly be the highlight of your trip. Buying food from local vendors rather than from multinational chains will allow more money to go to the local economy. When eating at a street stall, always eat at the most popular stall and avoid eating raw or undercooked meat and vegetables. When ordering drinks at a street stall ask for no ice. Avoid the soft drinks and try the delicious fruit juices that are readily available instead.

Local leaders and staff

I travel always aims to employ local people as office staff, leaders, guides, porters and drivers. These people are excellent sources of information. We encourage you to interact with them. They can introduce you to their friends, help avoid cultural faux-pass and can be a bridge between you and the local people by being interpreters and facilitators.

Wildlife:

Vietnam unfortunately has a market for the consumption of exotic species including endangered animals. Please refuse all offers of trying these products.

Consumption of endangered species is highly illegal and can be reported to ENV.

Education for Nature – Vietnam
No.2/C5, Tap the Dai hoc Ngoai Thuong,
Pho Chua Lang, Dong Da, Ha Noi, Vietnam.
PO Box 222, Hanoi
Phone/fax: +84 4 3775 3685
E-mail: env@fpt.vn

Avoid buying souvenirs that are derived from animals and refrain from buying items made from shells or coral and items made from hardwood where the origin is unknown.

Trail Etiquette:

When trekking, it is important that the area remains clean for future trekkers, the environment and the communities that live there. Any rubbish produced on the trek should be taken out to the nearest town where adequate waste management facilities are available. Take a few old plastic bags with you for this purpose. If you have a spare couple of minutes, then leave the place cleaner than you find it and pick up other litter too. Any toilet paper and sanitary products should not be left on the trail and should be taken out.

Waste Management:

Vietnam is a densely populated country with limited natural resources and a waste management problem. As travelers we can set an example by refusing plastic bags, refilling waterbottles or using a different water purification method such as iodine tablets, and not using the toiletries provided in hotels and guesthouses.

Drugs:

Drugs are illegal in Vietnam and are the cause of many social problems. In some locations, the demand for travelers to try drugs has caused a dependency problem for the locals and many social impacts in communities. Any person found to be using drugs will be asked to leave.

Allowing society to develop:

We ask you to remain open minded about development and poverty in local areas, and respect that the local people may wish to develop economically and gain access to material possessions that we take for granted. While this undoubtedly changes villages and makes them less ‘unspoilt’ for travellers, it is something that we should respect. A role you can play is to share some of the realities of our western culture, which while may be materially rich is often lacking in spiritually and community awareness. You can help people understand the negative influences that come from increased material wealth on the family and the community. Assist people to achieve a balanced view of development. Being aware that in your pursuit to find something untouched by tourism you may be the one stretching the boundaries of tourism�s negative impacts and harmful effects.

When you get home:

When you return home we’d like you to think about how you can give something back to the country you have experienced. You’ve just spent quite a bit of money on giving yourself a great time by experiencing another culture and meeting the people. Your spending has certainly helped the local economy, and now there are other things that can be done to help some other countries on an ongoing basis. After your trip, you will probably be more aware of the environmental, social, political and cultural problems that some local communities face. There are various agencies and groups trying to address these issues, aiming to assist developing countries maintain their cultural identity, develop sustainable resources and improve social justice situations. All of them require resources.

Money is not the only way you can assist, as simply providing your time and/or skills might be as valuable and useful.

Things you could do:

Join a development agency or other group devoted to concerns in developing countries.

Become a volunteer and donate time to aid groups.

Buy your birthday or Christmas presents at shops run by various third world charitable groups.

Write letters for Amnesty International to assist political prisoners or to put pressure on governments to change some intolerable situations.

Become more aware of your own government’s policies and how they influence the ‘two-thirds world’.

Become a more environmentally friendly household and help to use the world’s resources more efficiently.

Talk to others and educate them on the realities of the problems associated with tourism and how things should be done.

Offset the carbon dioxide that you produced on your trip with a donation to a carbon offsetting organization.

What does iExplore Travel do?

On all our trips there are things we as a travel company should do to lessen the negative social and environmental impact of our visits.

Use locally owned infrastructure for accommodation and transport where possible.

Spread the financial benefits amongst local people and operators.

Provide employment and leadership opportunities for local people.

Respect local customs and culture.

Educate travellers and our operators about how and why we choose to travel this way.

Limit the negative impacts to daily lifestyles of local people not involved with our groups or individuals.

Provide training to our staff, organizations and individuals associated with our trips to educate them on PIT and allow them to professionally develop.

Actively ban leader and passenger participation in or endorsement of commercial sexual activities or illegal drug use on our trips.

Actively discourage the participation of our groups or individuals in activities which exploit animals – wild or domestic.

Support and encourage fair employment practices.

Encourage our customers to offset their carbon dioxide emissions by donating to biofuel plants which stop deforestation and pollutions while also reducing poverty.

In certain environments and communities we need to do much more:

Our trips that visit small communities there are further issues raised and as such we need to particularly vigilant of our behaviour in order to make tourism sustainable.

iExplore Vietnam Travel does not run tours of more than 10 people in these areas as we find that large groups are too intrusive. If we have a larger group, they may need to be split up into 2 different groups.

iExplore Vietnam Travel also pays the amount of money decided by the homestay owners rather than what the tour operator or guide decides to pay.

iExplore Vietnam Travel tries to spread the income in a number of ways. While staying in homestays we strictly rotate our use of homestays so that all homestays receive the money from tourism rather than just a select few.

iExplore Vietnam Travel trys to buy as much food from the village as possible rather from the city or the main market and also to buy from villagers not yet benefiting from tourism.

iExplore Vietnam Travel chooses routes that are circular rather than using motorized transport which causes congestion and increases CO2 emissions.

iExplore Vietnam Travel also includes extra activities in the price of the trip. These can be things such as a cultural performance or a tour of the bamboo forest by the local guide as this employs people who are not yet benefiting from tourism and allows them the chance to make an income from tourism as well as giving our travelers added enjoyment and a greater cultural understanding. This makes our tours more expensive than many of our competitors, but we feel that this is the right thing to do.

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