Imaginative Traveller Worldwide Projects

• India - Chandelao Village
  Chandelao is a small principality near Jodhpur whose current Rajput ruler, Praduman Singh, is involved in trying to upgrade the life of the underprivileged in the village.
• China - Kind Heart Project
  This project offers financial support for children from poor familes in Yangshuo County to cover their school fees and essential equipment they may need such as computers.
• Laos - Water Coolers for Schools
  In Laos around 80% of the population does not have access to potable water. When asked what help they needed, the local communities said their biggest need was for clean, cool water, and especially in schools. What more did we need to hear?
• Thailand - P.I.G. (Positive Indigineous Growth)
  We buy pigs from hilltribe communites and donate them to families who are in need of extra income. Money raised in 2004 alone paid for 30 pigs.
• Thailand - Chiang Mai Orphanage
  Home to around 45 children, it provides them with shelter, support, food and education. They now have a pig breeding programme thanks to Imaginative Travellers 'PIG' project.
• Cambodia - Land Mines Museum and School
  Educating local villagers and tourists about landmines, this project helps with 'mine identification' and the impact they have on peoples lives when they are triggered
• Bolivia - Fundacion Cerro Rico Mines
  The Cerro Rico Foundation aims to provide an education for children living in local mining communities. This will enable them to have the opportunity to seek alternative employment in the future other than mining.
• Guatemala - Peten Volunteers
  The Volunteer Peten project is based in San Andres. They focus on initiatives that help to educate the local community, in particular about the conservation of their natural environment.

What is Responsible Travel?

Responsible Travel is about trying to ensure that travel to destinations is a positive experience for all - people, place and the environment. It stretches from the simple things like dressing appropriately in parts of the world where showing a shoulder is disrespectful, to the more complicated issue of making sure that your money stays in the local community. We all know that the economic gain of tourism can be vital for a country, but this should never be at the expense of a country's culture or environment.

Our role

Since Imaginative Traveller was created in 1991, we have held Responsible Travel practices at the very core of our operations. We have a thorough Responsible Travel Policy which we adhere to, but we do not believe that our role should end there. We also support a number of projects across the world and with the help of donations made by our travellers we are trying to make a real difference.

We provide advice to our travellers through Pre-Departure Information. In each Country Dossier you will find a section on Cultural and Environmental Guidelines with advice on subjects particular to each destination such as begging, religion, photography, toilet paper and water usage. Our tour leaders are also fully aware of our policies and will be on hand to offer advice throughout the tour.

Your role

Ultimately our policies mean nothing without our travellers participation. With the new rising interest in Responsible Travel we are seeing more and more travellers take an interest in the issues of travelling responsibly, and we hope this is only the start of things to come. Our projects rely on donations made by our travellers and we are extremely grateful to all who have helped us. We simply couldn't do it without you!
Projects

Since the year 2000 we have raised well over £34,000 for local projects in destinations across the globe. Much of this has been through donations made during booking, where the company matches £ for £ donations made by travellers - the rest has been left in collection boxes in some of the destinations.