To support and guarantee our social and environmental commitment,
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)** is adopted as a principle of our operation and implemented by skilled employees having experience in responsible tourism development to ensure minimization of negative impacts of tourism as well as maximization of the positive ones. Our core business is to offer our guests opportunities to get a real insight of Lao culture and experience the natural beauties, yet impacts of our actions on local people and nature have never been neglected. As a result, Tiger Trail’s code of conduct is represented as Socioeconomic Policy and Environmental Policy.
Socio-economic policy
• We employ local (Laotian) guides at Tiger Trail, and most of them guide in and around their hometown.
• Our employees have formal contracts of employment and have specific and agreed conditions.
• We pay fair salaries to our staff and furthermore half of the costs for the doctor or hospital.
• We provide employment opportunities and economic benefits for Laos by sourcing goods and services locally.
• We respect the human rights and do not employ children, because we believe that they should be able to play and get education.
• We are culturally sensitive and therefore regularly educate our guests regarding the appropriate manners and cultural differences.
• We include all related local community in decision-making that affect their lives and future, and this is the first priority of our community-based tours.
• We train and support involving communities to transfer skills and knowledge gaining from tourism activities – such as hospitality, accommodation and food provision, weaving and handicraft processing – into other different activities generating a new source of alternative job and income.
Environmental policy
• We try to minimize negative impacts of tourism on the environment by reducing consumption of energy, waste and water and by training our guides and staff on these issues.
• At the office we encourage our staff to use energy-efficient lighting and switch off the lights, air-conditioning and fan in non-occupied areas.
• We limit number of visitors based on carrying-capacity of each destination.
• We encourage our guests to act responsibly towards the environment.
• We take our waste from the tours back and recycle at our office when waste management is not provided onsite.
• We introduced a compact BBQ lunch, packed in re-usable boxes, on our trekking tours to avoid plastic and Styrofoam waste.
• We train our guides and staff on the issues of environmental and social awareness.
• We actively support a combination of activities, such as Biking, Elephant riding, Kayaking, and Trekking, in to a tour to reduce the usage of motorized vehicles, which reduces the carbon emission.
• We encourage join-in program and the use public transportation as much as possible to reduce transportation used and consequently carbon emission.
*This code of conduct engenders respect between visitors and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence.
** CSR is a tool guiding enterprises to integrate social, environmental and economic issues to their cooperate structures on a voluntary basis and therefore on a higher level than the legal claims require it.
