Sustainability Policy

Sustainability Policy

OUR VISION

Easia Travel is a 100% B2B destination management company in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand.

Humanity is a value we pride ourselves on here at Easia Travel, and we bring this humanistic philosophy to life through our actions, from protecting elephants and cultural heritage to simply reducing the amount of plastic we use in our day-to-day lives. We place sustainability at the core of our actions – not as a trend or a sales tool, but as an utmost necessity.

We work to preserve, protect and ultimately enhance the living systems in our destinations that sustain our business and the larger human economy. We take action to minimize the impact of our ecological footprint, protect the people and workers in our supply chain, and collaborate with like-minded partners to develop solutions for a more sustainable world. We give back from our earnings for the greater good of society. This evokes trust among our employees, clients, travelers, and the community.

Our objectives and sustainability commitments detailed below are influenced and guided by the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

 

OBJECTIVES

  • We consider the requirements of the earth’s living systems in all operations & services, and we do not take more from the planet than it can sustainably provide or provide to the world more than it can sustainably absorb.
  • We take responsibility for the safety of our products and services and for protecting activities undertaken by our employees and communities. We also take responsibility for the safe “end of life” recovery, reuse, or recycling of material products whenever possible and feasible.
  • We treat employees, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders fairly, honestly, and respectfully.
  • We design our operations and products/services (tailor-made journey) based on our values to be more efficient and less dependent on materials and activities that poison, degrade or harm living systems.
  • We measure our net carbon emissions (production of climate-changing greenhouse gasses) and ecological footprint (demand on earth’s regenerative capacity) and reduce and compensate for what we are impacting.
  • We create a responsible production portfolio and indicate the level of sustainability and the benefits to our local partners/ communities/environment.

Our commitments to care and support are categorized under five core values.

  • Responsible Management & Human Rights
  • Destination, Environment, and Community Relations
  • Suppliers and Guides
  • Excursions and Activities
  • Customer Communication and Protection

 

OUR COMMITMENTS:

Responsible Management & Human Rights

  • Responsible Management: With the support of a strong Board of Management, we have Sustainability Coordinators in all destinations to carry out our sustainable action plans.
  • Collaboration: Easia Travel maintains a constant dialogue with global forums and participates in collaborative training methods to guarantee authentic and sustainable adventures for all travelers.
  • Fair Play: Our staff has a safe and supportive working environment consisting of above-average wages, paid yearly leave (holidays, maternity, and sickness), and transparent contracts.
  • Health and Safety: We provide comprehensive insurance and accessible channels for complaints and emergency contact. Travelers are taken care of by our First Aid-trained guides and staff.
  • Prevention Measures: We constantly assess risk in both our in-house and supplier-provided products to address best and reduce negative impacts on all humans, animals, and environments involved.
  • Children and Youth: In strict accordance with UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Convention 138, we strive to create opportunities for national and international students looking for tourism jobs.
  • Protection and Human Rights: Humanity is one of our core values, and with the help of partners like ChildSafe and The Code- ECPAT, we help protect and support at-risk groups such as women, children, and ethnic minorities in our area of operation. We firmly commit ourselves and our suppliers to protect children against sexual exploitation in all our destinations.
  • Equality: We ensure equal opportunity for everyone, and we do not allow any discrimination based on gender, race, age, disability, ethnicity, religion/beliefs, or sexual orientation. We hold our partners and suppliers to the same standards.
  • Diversity: We strongly believe in the beauty of diversity. Our multi-national teams are trained in cross-cultural communication to provide an efficient working environment and ensure that travelers and locals interact comfortably.
  • Honesty: We compete based on the quality and price of products and services. Nobody within Easia Travel or acting on behalf of Easia Travel may give or accept, directly or indirectly, a bribe in any form. “Bribe” means any advantage, whether in monetary or other structure.
  • Fair Competition: Easia Travel observes fair and lawful competition practices and complies with all applicable competition or anti-trust laws wherever it does business.
  • Monitoring:  We consistently monitor the progress of our actions and commitments, reviewing our action plans every three months. We ensure that the respective departments meet the timelines for each action plan. If an action is incomplete and requires additional time, we make sure to reallocate the timeline with the agreement of the respective departments and the sustainability team.


Destination, Environment, and Community Relations

  • Responsible Promotion: Destinations in which tourism leads to structural adverse local effects regarding biodiversity, waste, sanitation, human rights, and healthcare, water, energy, and food availability are not selected for promotion.
  • Authenticity: The line between the commodification of culture and respectful authenticity can be tricky. Whenever possible, we avoid mass tourism destinations and set up memorable, meaningful local encounters for travelers and locals.
  • Locality: Besides the highlights, we propose off-the-beaten-track places where other tourists don’t usually go to support local communities that aren’t usually directly benefited by tourism. Working with these local communities helps reduce our impact on main tourist trails and provides impressive, unique experiences for adventurous clients.
  • Empowerment: Whenever we begin a business in a new region, we meet with the village head and critical members of the community to discuss tourism itself, provide hospitality education and training, and demonstrate how our travelers could bring a substantial income to the local community while being transparent with both the pros and cons.
  • Office Efforts: Following a comprehensive, educational action plan, our Green Teams in every country promote sustainable practices in their private and professional lives. We hope to be a role model and are always happy to collaborate with tourism stakeholders.
  • Recycling: From digitizing our office files to encouraging individual responsibility for waste, we are implementing an efficient and comprehensive recycling system for all our offices, just as we have done by partnering RecyGlo in Myanmar.
  • Energy Reduction: Every little bit helps, from limiting light and air-conditioning usage to regulating our water consumption; we aim to instill positive energy consumption practices in our staff.
  • Sustainable Purchasing: Instead of giving in to a “disposability culture,” we embrace a “repair and reuse” mindset regarding office equipment. We also ensure we never use or order more than we need and strive to find more sustainable alternatives. Bulk purchasing is encouraged to minimize packaging.
  • Reducing Plastic: Besides our expanding Refill Not Landfill campaign, we create awareness and set a positive example within the office by encouraging non-plastic solutions, such as using pre-packed lunches and reusable water bottles.
  • Clean-up Activities: We regularly join local environmental clean-ups and work to raise awareness of these activities to keep our destinations as they were meant to be seen: pristine and clean.
  • Clean Water: By collaborating with NGOs like Water for Cambodia since 2017, we work to provide safe water for families in our destinations, with 40 filters having been successfully installed to date.
  • Sustainable Travel:  Carbon emissions from essential business travel are calculated and compensated for to reduce our environmental impact. We minimize business travel where possible and encourage meetings and training to be conducted online via Zoom or Skype. For essential travel, staff are encouraged to use sustainable transportation methods. Flights are only taken when necessary, and priority is given to public transportation. Easia Travel developed its Mobility Policy for Staff Travel to encourage Easia Travel’s staff to adopt more sustainable means of transportation when commuting to work or during their business trips. Changing how Easia Travel staff moves around during business trips or inspections is critical to limiting the company’s environmental impact. From using public transportation to riding a bicycle, various options are available. Easia Travel will make it easier, more practical, and more appealing for its staff to make the right choice.
  • Carbon Compensation: Carbon emissions from essential business travel are calculated and compensated to reduce our impact on the environment.


Suppliers and Guides

  • Responsible Suppliers: We favor accommodation and activities that are locally owned and which are sustainability certified or at least have sustainability practices within their operations.
  • Loyalty: We want to ensure that our partners receive a positive impact from tourism and direct financial support. So, we always make at least a 5-year commitment to our projects with the local people.
  • Selection: In all our destinations, we carefully research and select local NGO partners demonstrating a quality commitment to community development. We assess our leading suppliers with our sustainability checklist to ensure they meet our standards.
  • Sustainability Clauses: We encourage our suppliers to commit to sustainable practices by signing our contract addenda for sustainability. Any violation of these clauses results in our immediate termination of the contract.
  • Guide Training: Every year, we focus on providing comprehensive training for guides and aspiring young guides alike, ranging from essential duties and rights to Easia Travel’s philosophy and developments in sustainable travel.
  • Guide’s Role: Our guides serve as excellent cultural liaisons between travelers and locals and are vital in disseminating our sustainable practices throughout our destinations.


Excursions and Activities

  • Responsible Excursions: We do not provide activities that harm humans, animals, plants, or natural resources or are socially/culturally unacceptable.
  • Product Inventory: Our tours support local communities by purchasing local goods and services, visiting social projects, and promoting authentic encounters that foster cross-cultural understanding.
  • Sourcing Locally: Not only is trying local dishes one of the best ways to learn about the culture and to bond with the local people, but supporting locally-sourced food helps keep small markets and local farmers in business.
  • Soft Adventure: We want the whole of Asia to be sustainable, safe, and easy for everyone, so our Easia Active team is constantly developing new and exciting hiking, kayaking, and cycling excursions, all led by guides expertly trained in first aid and exploring ‘off-the-beaten-path’ trails.
  • Wildlife and Captive Animals: Under the supervision of the PATA Animal Welfare Initiative, we only provide tours that strictly adhere to our guidelines against the mistreatment, exploitation, and abuse of all animals.
  • Sustainable Transportation: When packages are developed, different modes of transport are considered, and based on sustainability, price, and comfort, a decision is made about which options are the best.
  • Minimizing Ecological Footprints: Although travel tends to leave a sizable carbon footprint, we are currently working with selected NGOs to offset the footprint with tree-planting and environmental education programs and methods of accurately measuring our current ecological footprint.
  • Donations: Donating to reliable NGOs that can monitor and evaluate needs properly is of the utmost importance since we have seen the adverse effects even a tiny, mishandled donation can have on communities.
  • No School or Orphanage Visits: We at Easia Travel do not provide visits to schools or orphanages since these visits can be pretty harmful and disruptive for the community. Instead, we work with partners like ChildSafe and vocational schools to responsibly build relationships with locals.


Customer Communication and Protection

  • Customer Privacy: All employees are responsible for keeping confidential client information in any form (hard and soft copies) in the storage section of the company and are forbidden from revealing information without permission, and are responsible for reporting breaches of conduct.
  • Product Information: Our marketing reflects clear, complete, and accurate price and product information, including sustainability claims, and does not promise more than is delivered.
  • Code of Conduct: At Easia Travel, we inform all travelers about key sustainability issues in the destination and give tips and advice on positively contributing to local charities and sustainable initiatives without harming the local communities.
  • Quality of Services: Our local contacts, available in every destination 24/7, handle all complaints, emergencies, and other issues with speed and consummate professionalism.
  • Crisis Response: With comprehensive crisis response teams and protocols, we can handle constant communication and provide ongoing situation updates and safety advice.
  • Client Satisfaction: By implementing in-depth Quality Follow-Up Procedures, which include sustainability, we continuously measure, evaluate, and attempt to improve client satisfaction after every trip.

RIGHTS AND DUTIES

  • This policy, created by the Head of Sustainability of Easia Travel, has been approved by the Board of Management. It, therefore, can be set up and implemented as soon as it is published.
  • It is a document written to improve and ease the company’s management and decision-making. Thus, it will be implemented in every part of the company under the guidance of the Sustainability team.
  • This document will be updated every two years and will have to consider the company’s progress in sustainable development and following the strategic planification of the enterprise. This mainly concerns the Travelife certification and will allow us to set up an annual follow-up and thus make sure we’re always heading in the right direction.

STRUCTURE AND RESPONSABILITY

  • The Head of Sustainability of Easia Travel oversees this policy’s content and future modifications.
  • The Head of Sustainability of Easia Travel is responsible for introducing this policy to every staff member and ensuring it is adequately enforced.
  • The enforcement of this policy is also the responsibility of every Easian (Easia Employee).
  • The Head of Sustainability of Easia Travel will also establish an action plan following the present policy.

For further inquiries, please get in touch with our team at [email protected]