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Camino Travel Environmental Regulations
Our staff at Camino Travel stoutly believes that tourism can promote tolerance, raise awareness and consciousness in regards to protecting the environment and its natural as well as cultural resources. In our daily work, we continuously make the effort to put into practice the principles we consider are basic for obtaining a better way of doing tourism with as little impact on the environment as possible but creating a big impact in each individual traveler’s experience. When it comes to tourism, Camino Travel promotes sustainable business. By sustainable we refer to not only reducing the impact on the environment but we also conceive sustainability in its social, cultural and economical dimensions.
Considering the above, our company supports the following clauses:
- To encourage the involvement of local suppliers committed to combining quality service and environmental policies. For example, water and energy saving, recycling procedures, etc.
- To support locally owned tourism businesses. This is a very important issue in a country where foreign investment is very common and Costa Ricans miss out on the benefits of tourism
- To promote the involvement of the people of the local communities visited. This is the reason why we encourage the participation of rural populations in the services we provide by organizing programs in which they take part. Camino Travel uses the complementary services they offer
- Camino Travel promotes and prefers small hotels/ lodges that keep their own identity by offering an intimate atmosphere and personalized service
- To encourage contact between the traveler and the local inhabitants. We make sure to provide the guidelines in order to diminish social impact
- To promote the understanding and respect of cultural diversity as well as the idiosyncrasies of the different populations we work with
- To organize activities in which tourism plays a major role when it comes to improving people’s standards of living
- To provide travelers with tips for protecting the environment, encouraging them to: return unused brochures so that they can be reused, avoid using excessive sunscreen lotion (or tanning oils) right before swimming in the sea; try, when possible, to avoid having the towels and bed sheets changed every day, among others things. We also ask our clients to denounce and avoid any extraction, illegal captivity and commerce of wild plants and animals; we also encourage them to avoid feeding animals in the protected areas they visit
- To encourage the saving of water, energy and the use of recycling as mechanisms allowing us to live in a healthier environment that enriches our quality of living. For these reason, at our facilities, we always: separate recyclable materials from waste, turn off the faucet, turn off the lights and other office equipment when we are not using it, reuse and recycle paper and other materials. Moreover we are careful and responsible when using cleaning and office supplies
- Whenever organizing a tour to protected areas, Camino Travel always plans the program by taking into consideration the visitor capacity of the destination. We do this to reduce the environmental impact on the area. The maximum we endorse is of 18 to 20 participants per group and we strongly discourage large groups from visiting protected areas. When the visitor capacity of the destination isn’t stated, we promote consciousness in regards to the importance and need of creating those parameters. In this sense, we also provide information to our clients to encourage the protection of the places they visit
- Make a point of asking our clients to show respect towards the environment of the communities they visit. This can be achieved by avoiding to leave excessive waste, shunning the extraction of flora and fauna from national parks and other protected areas as well as spurning the purchase of authentic archaeological objects and souvenirs made with endangered animals or plants (such as tortoiseshell, coral and precious woods, among others)
- To design and evaluate plans that mitigate the negative impact on the environment, including the level of CO2 emissions and waste generated during the tours
- To uphold the law that protects and preserves natural resources, avoiding commercialization and denouncing the illegal extraction and captivity of wild animals and plants by our clients and suppliers
- When buying cleaning and office supplies, we use eco-friendly products that also fulfill the quality requirements we have established. We use biodegradable cleaners and detergents as well as oxo-biodegradable bags
- Make an effort to minimize, when possible, the purchase of supplies that produce waste. We use technological innovations to reduce the use of paper and ink
- Avoid the use of packages and utensils that cannot be reused
- Make a point of buying our supplies in big packages instead of individual ones
- Adequately store our supplies to avoid losing products needlessly
- When buying supplies, we make sure to purchase only what it is necessary
- Make the most of the resources we have
- Avoid the use of paint with lead or aerosol products that have chlorofluorocarbon
- When choosing the products we buy, we search for eco-friendly symbols. For instance: recyclable materials, recycled materials, products that are not animal tested, organic products, etc
- Promote consciousness among the members of our team and clients in regards to the importance of the adequate management of supplies
- Search for suppliers that can give us the opportunity to make environmental friendly promotional materials. We also use our website as much as possible as a way to promote ourselves, reducing the need of paper for that end
- Make a point of denouncing sources of contamination
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