Since 2003, Go Differently has been offering itineraries built around the principles of responsible tourism, often incorporating aspects of volunteering and/or voluntourism alongside other ethical aspects which help to ensure that all our trips not only minimise the negative effects of tourism but actually have a positive impact on the communities we visit.
Using local guides, local transport and local accommodation and paying fair wages, ensures that not only do you gain a unique insight into the culture you are visiting but also that as much of your money as possible stays in the local community.
We also support various community projects (helping to preserve traditional ways of life, providing education and supporting environmental initiatives) by encouraging you clients to visit or stay a while to lend a helping hand. Two of our longest running and most successful involvements have been...
a) with the tsunami-affected villages north of Khao Lak (working with North Andaman Tsunami Relief from its initial inception, we were the first operator to send voluntourists to this area (and quite possibly anywhere in Thailand) and continue to send homestay visitors/volunteers to this day)
b) supporting an initiative established to provide an alternative means of income for mahouts and their elephants at camps around Pattaya
By working in co-operation with local individuals and companies, particularly in less-developed regions, we advise on any potential impacts of our visits and strive to minimise these wherever possible. In this way, those who travel with us are not greeted as unwanted intruders but rather as welcome guests.
Your pre-departure documentation will include information about our responsible travel policies and will encourage you to follow our guidelines. These include stressing the need to avoid wastage of local resources, minimising the pollution caused by leaving litter and emphasising the need to respect local customs and cultural beliefs. As locals themselves, our guides will also advise and help you to fit in with social expectations.
In order to ensure a minimal impact on the places visited, the maximum size of a group on any trip is 12. We believe this allows you to become actively involved in the lives of the local communities without imposing foreign morals and values.
In the office we use paper from sustainable sources and recycling facilities as far as it is practical to do so. We also reduce wastage by trying to keep our paper-based literature/correspondence to a minimum. Details of all our trips are re-produced on our website and available in downloadable electronic format.
