Audley supports Costa Rica community project

Audley have just started a scheme in Costa Rica to support an indigenous community called “Boruca” located in the county of Buenos Aires in the Puntarenas Province. Around 50 women from the community make hand-woven items such as bags which we buy from them. The money goes directly back into the community and pays for the production and transportation of the items from their village to Buenos Aires city and onwards by bus. The women share the remainder of the money between them.

Upon arrival in Costa Rica Audley clients will receive one of the handmade items from the community along with a bit of background information about them.

Audley launches new North Africa & Arabia brochure

On Monday 29th September, Audley launched its new updated North Africa and Arabia brochure.

A launch party was held at our New Mill offices, a 17th-century converted woollen mill on the outskirts of Witney, and was attended by staff from all departments.

The North Africa and Arabia team baked various cakes and biscuits, which were then sold to staff, along with raffle tickets. In the end they raised £500 which went towards their charity of choice, the Hannan School in Morocco.

Currency collection raises £400 for Friends of Conservation

Over the last year or so we have been collecting leftover currency from our clients when they come back from their trips. These small amounts have slowly added up over the year and a few weeks ago we took a very heavy bag of currency up to London and gave a vast assortment of notes and coins to Amanda from Friends of Conservation. Over the next week or so volunteers counted the currency and sent it to Travelex who converted it into sterling. The final count is in and approximately £400 was raised which will go to support one of the many projects that Friends of Conservation are undertaking in Africa and around the globe.
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Audley’s South African Tree

Grootbos is a private nature reserve we send people to near Hermanus. It’s an area better known for whales but the flora is just as interesting – Grootbos actually supply the Eden Project in Cornwall with a number of their exhibits. They’re involved in a wide range of responsible travel initiatives, both environmental and social, including planting trees. Continue reading »

Meet the latest member of the New Zealand team!

The New Zealand team has grown considerably since we started out in 2004, and recently we decided to sponsor our own kiwi chick, Ra, who lives at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua, New Zealand. Rainbow Springs Nature Park is a tourist attraction committed to the conservation of native New Zealand plants and birds, and the development of sustainable tourism within the region. A major part of its efforts are in kiwi conservation, and the birth of ‘Kiwi Encounter’ means visitors can now see their work in action. Chicks such as Ra are incubated and hatched at Rainbow Springs, and raised until they are 1kg in weight. They are then released back into the wild by the Department of Conservation.

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Paper, printing and recycling

We appear to use tonnes of paper in our brochures and other printed material, however, as a company we are actually very paper efficient. Our brochures are produced in very low volumes and have a long ’shelf life’ because they don’t contain departure dates or prices. We have found that we are printing less brochures per region than we were five years ago.

We are talking to printers about the environmental friendliness of all our printed material with a view to improving it further. You may have noticed that the latest edition of Audley Traveller carries the FSC logo (Forestry Stewardship Council), which means that both the printer and the paper source have been audited to ensure sound environmental practise. We are exploring using naturally based inks on everything we print and using carbon neutral printers. At present it’s not possible to print our brochures on fully recycled paper as the quality isn’t to a high enough standard, however, it’s already possible to print on paper that is partially recycled. Similarly we are also investigating fully biodegradable/recyclable options for the plastic bags that brochures are mailed out in. Electronic communication via the web and email will undoubtedly cut down on our printing but is unlikely to ever completely stop it.

You can now also view all our brochures online in a completely interactive format.

Audley come out top in Green Travel survey

Delighted by the results in the Daily Telegraph and responsibletravel.com survey at the weekend where Audley came out top in the luxury tour operator sector. Good to see that all the responsible travel practises that we are putting in place are being recognised. We can’t really be pigeon-holed as just a luxury tour operator although we undoubtedly offer luxury trips. You can read more about our responsible travel on the main Audley website and within all the trip ideas.

Responsible Travel Update

We’re delighted to announce that Audley has once again secured 3* Responsible Travel status from AITO, scoring no less than 100 points out of a possible 100!The three star award is the highest level of Responsible Travel recognition offered by AITO and means that we have demonstrated successful implementation and continual improvement of our Responsible Travel policy. Continue reading »