Travel To Make A Difference
At ArchaeoAdventures we believe that traveling responsibly in the Middle East and North Africa involves understanding the impact we can have as visitors to the region. Through how we spend our money and our time, we as travelers have tremendous potential to affect the places we visit and the people who call them home. We – from the tour company to the traveler – recognize and honor that we can make a difference through the travel choices we make, the companies and people we work with, and where we spend our money. We can understand cultures, steward the environment, and protect ancient sites through our travel choices.
Working and traveling throughout the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade, our founder, Genevieve Hathaway, noticed that the skills and knowledge of women in the region were underutilized. Genevieve saw a need and understood how women travelers could help – providing jobs for the talented female guides in the region.
We run low impact, eco-friendly, sustainable tours. We leave no traces behind, reduce plastic use and leave as small a foot print as possible with our tours. And we ask our travelers to join us in this effort – contributing to the efforts of protection of the local land, its people, wildlife and culture. All our local guides and staff are properly employed, licensed and properly equipped and trained. We utilized local products and focus on economic benefits to local communities, as well as always considering and minimize the negative impact our tours have on the land and local communities.
We are growing our efforts to reduce plastic water bottle use, working with our in-country teams to find creative ways to explore countries sustainably and with as little plastic waste as possible. This is an on-going process and easier to implement in some countries compared to others due to logistic, single-use plastic water bottle alternatives and local education around recycling and reducing plastic waste. Over the next 5 years you will see our tours become ever increasingly plastic-waste free. We look forward to helping you travel and explore the region in a sustainable, plastic-free style. Refer to each tour’s individual page and documents for how that tour is eco-friendly and how you can help us run a low-impact, plastic waste free tours.
Responsible tourism is a manifesto. It’s taking ownership for the role we play and the power we have through how we travel to positive impact the environment, local communities, and local women professionals. You as a traveler on an ArchaeoAdventures trip are also part of this responsible tourism practice. By joining us on one of our tours, you are actively using your trip to employ local women with fair-wage jobs, help local communities, and make a positive impact on the environment in the areas where we work. And you can be proud to be part of this step in the right direction for worldwide gender equality – one woman at a time.