Our Responsible Tourism approach
Responsible Tourism is about making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit – by reducing the negative impacts of tourism and maximising the positive ones. At a practical level, this translates into several key areas for TATU Adventures:
We work with trusted partners who share our philosophy, are locally owned and who ensure the fair and ethical treatment of their employees. For Kilimanjaro climbs for example, this means working with members of the Kilimanjaro Porters’ Assistance Project, an independent organisation set up to improve the working conditions of the porters on Kilimanjaro, and to monitor compliance of affiliated companies. We are currently working with our main partner for safaris and climbs to amalgamate and develop their responsible tourism guidelines into their first formal responsible tourism policy.
All guides we work with for day trips and overnight excursions are from the local area and are key members of the TATU Adventures team. Together we plan regular training sessions, which contribute to their professional development and also their knowledge of responsible tourism. Using local guides who know the area well helps to ensure that visitors enjoy a more authentic and meaningful experience.
Tourism has great potential to contribute to local economic development, through supply chain linkages, employment opportunities and practices that maximise the amount of money that stays in local communities. At TATU Adventures, we favour locally owned accommodation providers here in Moshi, and use local eateries or locally owned lunchbox providers for all day trips. Water and snacks are purchased directly from small and independent shops. By further developing ties with community-run tourism initiatives, we aim to increase the amount of money that local communities have to invest in their own sustainable development projects.
A cost-efficient structure and low overheads allow us to offer affordable tours, whilst at the same time maximising the amount of money going straight to local communities, through both tourism initiatives and TATU Project. We don’t use any third party booking platforms, and are lucky to have a strong network of friends and supporters who provide us with many ‘word of mouth’ traveller referrals.
For our in-house tours, we offer visitors the option of traveling by public transport, which can be an adventure in itself, and also helps us reduce our carbon foot-print. Our guides bring the plastic bottles of trips back to Moshi with them, so that we can ensure they are recycled or re-used.
We find it important to help our visitors make informed decisions, so we provide them with information and advice about traveling in a way that minimizes negative impacts, and maximizes mutual respect and understanding. These guidelines are sent to all travellers before their arrival here in Tanzania, but can also be accessed here: