Background
We specialise in tailor-made travel for mid to high end travellers, couples, families and groups.Cultural, archaeology, birdwatching, multi sport, textiles, diving and other specialisms.
Licences And Associations
INGUAT – Guatemalan Tourist Board Membership
BTB – Belize Tourist Board Membership
BTOA – Belize Tour Operator Association
Virtuoso On-Site for Guatemala
Signature Travel Network Member for Guatemala, Belize, Honduras
Andrew Harper Destination Specialist
SITE – Society of Incentive Travel Executives Member
STI – Sustainable Travel International Member
Responsible Travel
VIAVENTURE & RESPONSIBLE / SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
“The world is your oyster” is a reality to more people than ever before because of travel. Tourism is taking centre stage, even overtaking the oil business as the biggest industry in the world. As such, we as Tourism providers have an obligation to provide this service in the best interests of all concerned by applying environmental ethics, cultural sensitivity and responsible travel principles in our daily activities.
1. OUR POLICY
What exactly is responsible tourism?
Providing a high-quality travel experience whilst at the same time:
A: Respecting / Conserving the environment & natural resources
B: Protecting / Developing cultural resources
C: Creating economic benefit to destination communities
Viaventure Responsible Tourism Policy
In support of these three foundations we aim to:
• Contribute to conservation of the environment & natural habitats in the countries in which we operate
• Promote the reduction of energy and resource usage. Contribute to offsetting our carbon footprint & promote offsetting amongst our clients and suppliers
• Support the conservation of cultural heritage in the countries in which we operate
• Support the communities that we visit by ensuring that they benefit economically from our presence
• Be sensitive to local culture and respect cultural differences & encourage our guests to do likewise
• Provide opportunities for genuine interaction & foster understanding between our customers & their hosts
• Enhance the wellbeing of communities by contributing to development projects through the Viaventure Foundation
• Enhance the wellbeing of communities by involving them in sustainable tourism programs
• Actively encourage our clients, customers and suppliers to participate in responsible tourism and improve all our practices
Our policy is to periodically analyze our positive & negative impact in these areas & develop and implement actions to build on the positives and to work to eliminate or reduce as much as possible any negative impact.
Our policy is to involve all stakeholders in the process including our staff, our clients, the people who travel with us, our suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
2. VIAVENTURE FOUNDATION
After five years of successfully bringing visitors from all over the world to see the splendors of Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, Viaventure decided in Sept 2006 to get actively involved in the new Responsible Tourism movement, and take a positive, pro-active step to put something back into the countries in which we work, and be more conscientious as to the positive and negative aspects of tourism. Our first step has been to create a charity fund: the Viaventure Foundation.
As Guatemala is our base and main destination, this is where we are going to start. We have chosen a number of grassroots NGOs and projects to support initially and continue to look for the organizations that best fit our aims of Sustainable Deveopment. The money we raise for our Foundation will be divided between these projects at the end of every year. We will also be contributing an annual grant to a one-off chosen project that has been brought to our attention and offering “in-kind” services of transportation etc to other programs.