Vajra Guru Travels Policy

Aims

Vajra Guru Spiritual Travels is an agent for "socially responsible". Our attempts are to reach and fulfill the social, economic, environmental and spiritual responsible goals. We carefully make decision and take actions that will enhance the welfare and interest of society as well as the spiritual groups. We know tour operators responsible are very important to the society, environment, and organization and human.
We are, in fact, becoming increasingly active in addressing and preserving social good while marketing and promoting our mostly “tailor-made travel” business monitor directly by the Tourism Council of Bhutan.

1. Economic Responsibility

Although we have small numbers of tourist visiting Bhutan each year but Tourism still plays a relatively healthy role in contributing to the Bhutan national income.

1. The Vajra Guru Spiritual Travel recognizes that our cultural heritage should not only be assessed in economic terms, and that tourism can create revenue from cultural heritage, traditional ways of life and wildlife and habitats.
2. We always consider the opportunity costs of tourism for local communities and their livelihoods, and are prepared to accept that there may be more appropriate economic opportunities for the area.
3. We buy locally–made goods and use locally–provided services from locally-owned businesses wherever quality, quantity, and consistency permits.
4. We always help local communities to develop their product so that it can be more easily used by others and marketed to tourists.
5. We give customers the opportunity to purchase locally produced arts and textiles. We foster the development of community-based tourism products by providing marketing and mentoring support.
6. We encourage visitors to spend more money in the local economy, and to visit local bars and restaurants and participate in tours to local areas, bringing business to local communities.
7. We are more innovative in our itineraries, by for example including local museums, arts and craft shops and local ethnic restaurants in our tour itineraries, and by doing so encourage visitor spend.
8. We try to provide information about local services and attractions provided in local communities, and encourage our clients to use them.
9. We foster the development of access opportunities for all visitors and potential visitors, regardless of physical or mental conditions of the visitor.
10. We believe and develop transparent systems of sharing the benefits of tourism through equitable contracts.
11. As far as possible we recruit and employ staff in an equitable and transparent manner and maximize the proportion of staff employed from the local community.
12. We go beyond the bare minimum wage rate and invest in local staff – quality is dependent upon well-motivated staff.

2. Social Responsibility

Tourism and the travel industry dependent upon the social, cultural and natural environment within which it occurs, and its success is dependent upon the environment that it operates within. Too few of the benefits from tourism currently accrue to local communities whose environment is visited.

In the Bhutan, the new government’s objective is to ensure that all citizens have equal access to tourism services as consumers and providers. Programmes are being established to allow Bhutan, and particularly front-line tourism employees, to become “tourists at home”.

1. We understand the historical, political and cultural context of local and host communities, and historical relationships with tourism development and protected areas.
2. We also understand the local, safety and security, infrastructural, resource, educational, poverty, disability and health constraints (e.g. HIV/AIDS), when designing, operating and marketing tourism.
3. We determine what constitutes sustainable levels of tourism in the social, natural, and economic context.
4. We create public awareness within communities that are needed regarding the potential positive and negative aspects of tourism.
5. We educate employees regarding the potential pros and cons of tourism, and comparative costs and benefits of alternative enterprises in order to aid decision making.
6. We involve the local communities in growing the local tourism business by using existing facilities and by developing new activities and attractions.
7. We empower communities to market their cultural traditions and products as assets and enhance their economic opportunities.
8. We identify and monitor potential adverse social impacts of tourism and minimise them in the short and the long-term, and ensure that communities actively participate in the monitoring.
9. We work with local government and the local community to identify priority sites, and make them safe and attractive for tourists.
10. We ensure to develop tourism with dignity, respect and nurture local cultures (including religion), so that they enrich the tourism experience and build pride and confidence among local communities.
11. Our tourism development should not compromise respect for social and cultural and religious rights, or the essential human rights of people to food, a safe and clean environment, work, health, and education.
12. We wish to support the development of sustainable local handicraft enterprise by assisting with improvement of design, marketing, production and packaging skills for craft workers in relation to market demand. Consider specifically what can be done to enhance the skills and earnings of women, particularly in rural areas.
13. We encourage showcasing local cultural artifacts and sale of traditional cultural products, crafts and folklore.
14. We offer our clients a local flavour by serving local dishes and source soft furnishings, arts and crafts locally. Monitor the proportion of local dishes on menu;
15. We encourage tourists to show respect by learning a few words of the local language, (and to use them when talking to local people!) and to learn about the host culture and traditions.
16. Respect, invest in and develop local cultures and protect them from over-commercialization and over-exploitation.
17. We use local guides, and encourage them to continually improve their quality, to ensure that the community speaks for itself and to increase the revenues going into the local community.
18. We create opportunities for visitors to interact with locals in an unstructured, spontaneous manner (e.g. through sporting activities, visits to local schools, Temple, Monastery, local restaurants).
19. We provide visitors with inclusive, honest and reliable information about history, religion and contemporary life, local tourism attractions and facilities.
20. Negative social and cultural impacts associated with tourism, such as drug and alcohol abuse, and crime should be monitored and be proactively addressed in cooperation with the community.
21. We constantly educate tourists regarding local culture & religious values and where necessary make them aware of how they should behave to respect it.

3. Environmental Responsibility

Responsible tourism implies a proactive approach by the tourism sector to the environment through the promotion of balanced and sustainable tourism. Bhutan has been declared as one of the ten bio-diversity 'hotspots' in environment conservation. Bhutanese people have preserved their natural environment for centuries. Cultural heritage is also part of the environment, and the responsibility of the tourism sector towards the cultural environment was considered in the social responsibility guidelines.

Vajra Guru Spiritual Travels make a contribution to environmental sustainability by exercising care in purchasing decisions and by making clients aware of the responsible purchasing policy too.

1. We plan our activities to have the lowest possible ecological impact, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas such as the indigenous forests, wildlife habitats and wetlands.
2. We work with suppliers to minimize the amount of packaging purchased with supplies, and therefore reduce the amount of waste that needs to be disposed of.
3. We encourage visitor behaviour that respects natural heritage and has a low impact upon it.
4. We discourage our clients the purchase of products that exploit wildlife unsustainably or contribute to the destruction of species or habitats.
5. We always look for ways in which the agent and its guests can assist with the conservation of natural heritage, for example through removing litter.
6. We try to avoid pollution by using environmentally friendly chemicals, and by using biodegradable soaps and detergents – tell visitors and staff why the enterprise is doing this and how it benefits the environment.
7. We work with conservation authorities to ensure that visitors to natural heritage areas are aware of the impacts that they may have on the ecology of the area and how they should behave in order to minimise those impacts.
8. We ensure that relevant members of staff are familiar with the issues and ways of avoiding environmental impacts – they should abide by the advice and communicate it to guests the same.
9. We do not market or encourage tourists into ecologically sensitive areas which are vulnerable to irresponsible tourism practices, particular sports or recreational uses.