Responsible Tourism

We don’t just believe in responsible tourism – we live it!

As leaders in inbound tourism, we at Welcome Tourism Services are in a powerful position to promote responsible tourism daily – and we do just that. We take active steps to protect our own company’s impact on the environment, and work closely with suppliers and partners who share these ideals. Our vision is to ensure triple bottom-line compliance throughout all structures of our business.

Green Leaf Environmental Standard

Proudly awarded Silver Status by the Wilderness Foundation’s Green Leaf Environmental Standard, Welcome Tourism Services, a brand of Tourvest Destination Management, is one of South Africa’s leading green Tour Operators.

Our aim is to subscribe to a best practice responsible tourism model that:

• limits our water, energy and waste;
• measures the environmental impact of our administrative and operational supply chain, including transportation and communication;
• helps us to reduce consumption of paper, print and energy, and implement recycling as effectively as possible;

We continually encourage all our staff, partners and suppliers to follow similar environmental principles.

Social responsibility projects

Mary’s Home
Welcome Tourism Services is actively involved with Mary’s Home, located in Orange Farm, a township south of Johannesburg. . This day facility provides day care to 35 children between the ages of 3 and 15 years old. We have already helped to establish a vegetable garden here, and are exploring ways to involved the local women in beading and other income-generating projects. The aim is to help the orphanage become self-sufficient.

The Tourvest Destination Management Academy

The South African tourism industry, like so many others, suffers from a shortage of skills. At the same time, there is significant unemployment in the country. In 2006, Tourvest took a leadership role in solving these two problems – by creating an academy specifically aimed at previously disadvantaged individuals. This provides both training and employment opportunities in the tourism industry through theoretical and practical exposure.

Each learner is allocated a mentor who helps apply the theoretical training in the workplace. Mentors are carefully selected, and able to share knowledge and experience gained over many years.

The Academy’s pioneering education-to-employment model is a positive, practical step towards skills development and employment creation, and we’re delighted and proud that we’re helping to break the cycle of poverty.

Community Contributor Status Report - TourvestH (CSI)