We are delighted to announce that Easia Travel Laos have been awarded Travelife Certification in April 2021, becoming only the third company in Laos to achieve the award. Already Travelife Partners in all destinations Easia operates in, the certification achieved at the Luang Prabang office is the first step towards all Easia bases becoming Travelife Certified.
The award was granted after a successful audit and on-spot inspection by Travelife of the office and team, where checks were made into the daily running of the operations and behavior of not only Easia’s full-time staff, but through interviews with suppliers and guides.
Other Easia offices in Hanoi, Bangkok and Siem Reap are also well underway in their own applications to become Travelife Certified, as we push to become one of the few DMCs in Southeast Asia to be fully certified.
The news also comes on the back of the appointment of Matteo Galeazzi to the position of Sustainability Manager, who takes on the additional duties in tandem with his role as Brand Director for Easia Active. In preparation for his new responsibilities, Matteo recently completed the GSTC (Global Sustainable Tourism Council) Sustainable Tourism Training Program passing the exam to earn the GSTC’s Professional Certificate in Sustainable Tourism.
“With the world, and especially the travel industry, in a period of evolution, we at Easia firmly believe that responsible travel isn’t one path to take; it’s the only way forward for our industry and our planet.”, said Matteo.
“For us, this certification is a confirmation that we ‘walk the walk’ in our daily lives as employers and staff, and we embrace the meaning and values of responsible travel. We understand that our role as inbound tour operators and travel designers is first to understand and respect our own community and the resources that our destinations offers, and that our obligation doesn’t end with creating responsible activity options we sell but our mission is to share the values of sustainability to people around us, including the travelers who visit our beautiful destinations. By planting seeds in our own internal organization, we hope to act as influencers to help grow and develop a more conscious mindset among our peers in the industry and local community.”
What does Travelife Certification mean?
The next level up from Travelife Partner, achieving Travelife Certification is an indication of Easia’s commitment to not only promoting responsible travel to the travel agents & tour operators in our markets, or the travelers on the ground, but is also recognition for the long-term efforts and CSR (corporate social responsibility) leadership demonstrated in our local communities.
The certification requires compliance with a total of over 200 criteria, among which 150 are compulsory measures, covering sustainability practices in office management, product range, international business partners and customer information.
The Travelife standard covers the ISO26000 Corporate Social Responsibility themes, including environment, biodiversity, human rights and labor relations; and is recognized by the UN-supported Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.
Who are Travelife?
Travelife is one of the leading auditors in the areas of sustainable and responsible operations, and since 2012 have trained over 1,500 tour operators in CSR, and more than 500 tour operators have received a Travelife award to date.
What’s next for Easia?
With the certification process underway at our other destinations, we hope to have all Easia offices Travelife Certified within 2021.
Along with this action, our internal teams are working on a full audit of our entire product range to create Sustainability Commitment Indicators for our activities and services, to better help our internal sales and clients understand the impact of their travelers in our destinations, and allow them to select options that match their own travel philosophies, as well as those of their customers.
Meanwhile, we continue to push towards establishing a Carbon Offset Scheme, and continue to operate in coordination with the Refill Not Landfill project. Discover more information about Easia’s recent endeavors in Our Sustainability Journey 2019-2020.
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