Our Mission Statement
To be the global online and offline benchmark in responsible tourism for travel to Asia by bringing together travelers and high quality responsible travel suppliers, utilizing our technology leadership and domain expertise, that results in maximizing return to all direct and indirect stakeholders, and act as a stimulant for the growth of responsible travel & tourism in the region.
Our Vision – doing well by doing good
With international tourism forecast to nearly triple in volume over the next twenty years, we believe that there is an urgent wake-up call needed to minimize the negative impact of tourism on the environment and on cultural heritage while maximizing the benefits for residents of tourism destinations.
Global travellers increasingly want an authentic destination experience. They want to plan their holiday by communicating directly with local hotels or travel operators; they want to stay with local residents, they want to try local cuisine, and they want to immerse themselves completely in the local culture. And most of all, they want to know that the money they spend is going to local entrepreneurs, communities, and individuals.
Recognizing this trend, many local individuals, communities, and entrepreneurs are now beginning to realize that they can easily create and offer travel related experiences that attract the responsible traveller. In doing so, these industry stakeholders can offer significant value to travellers by creating authentic experiences, save cost by establishing sustainable environmental and social practices & ultimately in the long run deliver greater economic prosperity for themselves, their employees and the larger community.
At Travel To Care, we realize that we need a three-pronged approach:
Directly connecting travellers with travel service providers
What was needed was a way to bridge the needs of this new segment of traveller with the experiences available across the world. Tourism enterprises, particularly the small hotels, homestays, community based tourism projects, and small tour operators needed to create more awareness of their offerings globally but did not have the marketing budgets of larger operators. And travellers needed an inspiring yet trusted source of information about these products and services, and could book directly with them. We are well on our way to achieving this.
Creating a knowledge library and marketplace
We also realize that different partners are at different stages in the journey to sustainable and responsible tourism. Partners have both unique and similar challenges across geographies. The goal is then enabling our partners to make progress in their efforts by sharing best practices, identifying and finding solutions, and even to get subsidies and special offers from government and private sector manufacturers for our group of partners. This we hope will create a ripple effect in sustainable tourism practices across members across geographies.
Enabling non-governmental organizations through traveller support
Our experience also tells us that many travellers who come to the developing part of the world on a holiday are deeply affected by the contrasts and contradictions that they see, or are inspired by something truly special. However, most holidays end with travellers contributing materially or monetarily to projects that often are misguided. We want to identify and profile organizations in local destinations that not only genuinely need support, but in turn significantly enhance the travellers’ experience of the local destination.
The above are Travel to Care goals