Philippines tour to the Visayas

The Philippines is one of the world's most beautiful countries, but also a forgotten nation in the sense of a tourist destination. Today the Philippines are a democratic country struggling to get their economy at hand. As one of the few tour operators to the Philippines we hope to make a difference. By booking these tours, you'll be helping us to support Philippine service providers, small businesses, boat owners and other people in poor communities throughout the Philippines. Both the Filipino economy and the environment e.g. forests and coral reefs, depend on tourism.

In many places dynamite fishing has come to an end and instead of fishing, fishermen now days make a living out of tourism and help to preserve coral reefs.

Our tour guide Barbro has a wide experience and knowledge of the Philippines and the Filipino culture and traditions. In 1997 she worked in the Philippines to collect information about the textile cultural heritage among the Filipino women's. Today she spends the European winters in the Philippines, working as a dive instructor. During the tour you will also get to meet our local guides who will give you an even deeper understanding of the Filipino people and some more specific information about the areas being visited.

During our round tour of Bohol we will pay a visit to the tarsier centre, a centre working to save the world's smallest primate. By visiting the centre you contribute to the tarsier foundation, and help save the species from being extinct. You will also have the possibility to go on small day trips which support the local environment and economy for example whale and dolphin watching organized by former whale hunters or a round tour of the mangrove run by a local small village.

Wherever possible, we stay in locally owned guesthouses and hotels and eat at locally owned restaurants. In some places like Nuts Huts they try their best to only use small local suppliers.

Going from one place to another we use public buses, jeepneys and boats to help minimize the affect on climate; it is also a great chance to meet local travellers. Sometimes, when there are no other options, we charter a locally owned boat or bus with a local driver.

On all our tours our main goal is to give the travellers great memories and also a feeling of having learned new things about cultures but also of having contributed to a positive development of the area being visited. Respect for local people, their cultures, traditions and environment is essential to us.

Throughout our tours we work hard to ensure that our groups have a positive impact on the places and people visited. On arrival our tour guide will give a briefing about local customs, traditions, religion, body language and eating habits. There are no more than 10 travellers on our tour. Travelling in a small group help minimize environmental impact and also makes it easier to interact with the local communities.

Before you go on our tour you will receive our Responsible Travellers code of conduct which will give you details on how you can play an important part in reducing your impact on the fragile environments and cultures around the world. But it is not only what we, and our clients, do on tour that counts. In our office we also try to minimize the negative impact on the environment. For example we do not print brochures due to the huge paper wastage and print runs; all information about us and our tours our clients can find on the Internet. The office use recycled and recyclable materials wherever possible and recycle everything possible: paper, plastic, metal, glass etc.

The company is a member of the Swedish Eco Tourism Association and of Ecpat, a non-profit organisation that works against sexual abuse of children and child prostitution.