In many ways overlanding has truly come of age. At a time when a climate emergency is being declared, Dragoman have actually been travelling responsibly for years. We work to minimise the negative aspects of the social, economic and environmental impacts of tourism, and strive to maximise economic and environmental benefits to the local communities that we travel through whilst providing an amazing experience for our customers.
We are one of Responsible Travel's responsible tour operators and are committed advocates for change, working to cut our carbon emissions and to support the Tourism Declares community.
Dragoman's approach to responsible tourism:
Dragoman’s Local Group Fund or Kitty
This covers everything that the group does together on the ground including accommodation, meals and included activities; putting money directly back into the local community. The fund operates at cost without commission or profit which also makes the trip as affordable as possible for our travellers.
Accommodation
We minimise our footprint by wild camping and when we need to use provided accommodation, we primarily use small, locally owned camp sites, hotels, guest houses and home stays to provide accommodation.
Excursions
We use local guides to provide activities, where possible, thus ensuring money is put directly back into the communities we visit. They work in conjunction with our crew who provide continuity throughout the trip.
Food
On our truck trips, we source our food locally, shopping in local markets and shops and using seasonal foods to reduce food miles.
Reducing our carbon emissions
We recognize that the three biggest sources of carbon emissions on our trips are generated by transport, energy use in accommodations and food. We advise our customers to fly less and take fewer but longer holidays by air.
We design our trips to reduce the need for internal flights once in destination preferring to use our trucks to travel overland instead. We also co-ordinate our trips so that where possible they travel in two directions so that we minimize additional mileage. We also aim to run our trucks at a capacity that is not only comfortable for our travellers but also with economies of scale with fuel etc.
Environment
Wherever possible we choose suppliers who have green practices in place. We carefully monitor waste disposal from our trucks and recycle waste where possible. We attempt to reduce the use of single use plastic water bottles by carrying purified drinking water on all of our trucks and actively encourage our customers to use the water supplied. Whilst away from the truck we encourage the use of filtered water bottles and offer discounts on Water to Go bottles. We encourage all of our customers not to use single use plastic bags and provide shopping bags on our trucks to purchase local produce.
Responsible Travel Policies
We have a strict Responsible Travel policy that applies to our crew, our passengers and our suppliers. We do not visit orphanages. We want to protect animals from exploitation, neglect and cruelty. We do not offer elephant riding and ask all our travellers to respect our Responsible Wildlife Viewing guide.
We support local Community Projects
We recognise that tourism can bring benefits to many communities, help preserve the environments we travel through and provide some real and positive social exchanges. In addition to our responsible travel philosophy, we have actively sought some specific small-scale projects for you to visit and support through Dragoman Supports. Learn more about the projects we support.
Trusted Partner