Pura Aventura

According to the United Nations World Tourism Association, US$95 of every US$100 spent on tourism in the developing world leaves host countries. This economic leakage — where money flows from local communities to international businesses — burdens many local economies and accelerates environmental decline. But travel also has incredible potential to do good. When done responsibly, it can boost local economies, fund conservation efforts, and create employment opportunities. What’s more: travellers want to choose more sustainable options, but how can they navigate the myriad of sustainability certifications and claims to ensure their choices truly make a positive impact? In her latest article for National Geographic, Holly Tuppen explores how #BCorpCertified companies are leading the way in responsible tourism. With over 100 certifications in the travel industry, #BCorps stand out by prioritizing their impact on the environment and society, not just their bottom line. “It sounds grandiose, but if we all spend our money with B Corp-type businesses, then our world is likely to be a better place to live.” — Thomas Power, Co-founder & CEO of Pura Aventura. 🗺️🌟Ready to make your wanderlust count? Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e_NgQ65J #BCorp Intrepid Travel Much Better Adventures Inside Travel Group | B Corp™ Luxury Cottages | B Corp 🌿 Travel Matters | B Corp Steppes Travel Mr & Mrs Smith B Lab UK

We are hugely honoured to have received the Latin American Travel Association's Gold Award for Increasing Local Sourcing - Creating Shared Value. 🥇 The team is bursting with pride, as you can probably tell from all of the grubby fingerprints on our prize! We love supporting so many micro-enterprises. Sending customers to them feels like introducing friends, as corny as that sounds, so we really appreciate these words from the judges - thank you so much! "Impressing the judges for their policy of working directly with micro-enterprises and small-scale owner-hosted hotels, Pura Aventura received Gold for Increasing Local Sourcing. In 2023, Pura Aventura worked with 500 different suppliers, of which 85% of the top 100 are micro-enterprises. Using mostly small and microlocal businesses and individuals ensures that more tourist income remains with the local community." #LATAExpo https://lnkd.in/d3U3AvFx

Listening to Rajan Datar's enlightening three-part radio show 'The Tourist Trap' on BBC Radio 4 is at once enlightening and horrifying. Tales from one place in particular resonated with me. Hallstatt is a 16th century lakeside mountain village near Salzburg. It is so impossibly pretty that it was used by Disney to model the village in Frozen. With a population of just over 800, it receives something like a million visitors a year. Though tourism isn't without benefit to the local community, only a small minority of the community (maybe 20%) derive their income from visitors. Most tourism businesses are owned by external investors so the money leaves the village as quickly as it arrives. I can't help but picture the village as carrion, pecked at from all sides. The depressing truth seemed to be that people were there to get the photo and leave. That certainly seemed to be the gist of complaints from locals - those coming for a couple of hours, getting 'the shot' and moving on. There's a woman who's travelled from South Korea with her kids to get photos of them as princesses. That's a 13,000km roundtrip. But here's the thing: a memory isn't a photo. If we travel in search of a particular shot, we miss the very point of travel. If you haven't had a memorable experience in a place, an image triggers no emotion, no memory and becomes a mere facsimile. When we treat travel as a commodity, we create the conditions in which over-tourism thrives. Travel actually just becomes more 'stuff' we are accumulating, more clutter in our lives destined to be marked only by forgotten photos buried in a phone. Conversely, a travel experience isn't a defined product, extrinsic to us, it is the product of our interaction with a place, and its people and of course that's where memories come from. This more esoteric angle encourages us to actively consider how we want to engage with our host destination; its consideration comes before the practicalities of where we'll go and how long we might be there. So maybe we need to move away from thinking about all the places we want to go/see and instead think about how/what we want to experience and let that be our guiding light.

Join us this Thursday for an insightful panel discussion on responsible adventure travel at ABTA’s Adventure Travel Conference in London. Our Co-Founder and CEO, Thomas Power, will be representing Pura Aventura alongside esteemed industry experts to explore the crucial intersection of sustainability and travel. Key topics on the agenda include: Advocating the business case for sustainability 📈 Promoting sustainability initiatives and raising customer awareness 🌿 Ensuring a sustainable and ethical supply chain 🔄 Addressing over-tourism and other destination concerns 🌎 With the guidance of moderator Carol Rose, Head of Sustainability at ABTA, and fellow panelists Claire Ouditt (Macs Adventure) and Julia Bianco (Exodus Adventure Travels), we'll delve into actionable strategies for a more sustainable future in travel. We'd love to see you there! #ResponsibleTravel #Sustainability #AdventureTravel #PuraAventura #TravelTalk #Conference #abta

As always, we loved taking part in Latin American Travel Association annual reception at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster a couple weeks back. Chris Pickard, long standing member of the LATA Committee, and trustee and former chair of the LATA Foundation, was presented with an award to celebrate his incredible work over many years of service. The LATA Special Recognition Award 2024 was awarded to cecilia pardo, for curating the Peru and the Andes exhibition at The British Museum, and showcasing the rich cultural and historical tapestry of Peru and Latin America. Overall, it was a memorable evening filled with appreciation for Latin America's beauty and heritage. Thank you to Mark Menzies MP and the LATA Foundation. We look forward to continuing celebrating Latin America with you all. 🌟 #LATAParliamentReception #LatinAmerica #CelebratingExcellence

Sharing an end of week treat... Yesterday I was talking to clients after their trip to Patagonia. I loved it because their overwhelming feedback was about not just place but how much they enjoyed meeting our people on the ground. It's actually that direct connection we have with our supply chain that makes us unusual in our industry. But don't worry, I'm not going to quote happy clients at you because that's not what this place is for. I am going to quote a happy supplier though. That's what this is. A message from one of our guides in Patagonia sent today. Having spent yesterday with clients of another operation (who hadn't had a great time) he was in reflective mood: "I would just like to get a message to you and all concerned in the office, those of you that put the trips together and make these incredible experiences happen for your clients. WELL DONE, good for you all. You are all doing an incredible job, taking in to consideration the distances, language, culture, people, transport and weather. The overall perspective of every client I have worked with is of Pura's professionalism and smoothness of their experiences they have. I hope you can share this with all the staff involved. Pat yourselves on the back. You’re doing an amazing job and creating wonderful memories for your clients. I am proud to be a part of it. Thank you." [For the cynics out there, this person is not given to these kinds of messages and gains nothing from sending it, other than our sincere appreciation.] I love to get great client feedback, I really do. But to get this kind of feedback from our supply chain is special. I often toy with the concept of a 'fair exchange rate' between us/them, here/there, us/nature...When equilibrium is achieved between hosts, visitors & us (as facilitators), magic happens. That makes me proud.

A second year experiencing the Adventure Travel Network conference #ATN24 Of all the travel industry events of the year, this is the one which seems to deliver the best content: short, sharp doses of thought provoking talks. No nonsense, no pomposity, and no spare seats. Very relaxed, always hosted with great humour by Jono Vernon-Powell Delighted to hear it’s moving to a larger venue for 2025, your success is well earned Pru Goudie and the team. Anyone in the specialist travel sector, get your tickets early for next year.

We're excited to announce that Thomas Power, our Co-founder and CEO, will be a panelist again this year at The Adventure Travel Networking (ATN) Conference & Marketplace, alongside Claire Ingleby, mb LAW and Prof. Xavier Font, University of Surrey. The ATN brings together over 250 travel trade members including UK adventure tour operators, CEOs and owners, senior product and marketing professionals, Tourist Boards, relevant charities, trade bodies, influential industry speakers, key travel media and more. The panel session happens in London this Thursday, 29 February 2024, 16:25 - 16:55 🕟 on topic “Sustainability: Don’t Mention The 'S' Word.” All panel sessions focusing on sustainability and animal tourism will be curated and moderated by the two experts in their field: Holly Tuppen and Richard Hammond, and the overall conference will be moderated by Jono Vernon-Powell. We're looking forward to this key event and all of its important discussions. 🌿 🌎 🗣 #sustainabletravel #travelindustry #travelindustrynews

We're thrilled to share some exciting news - our recent B Corp recertification has exceeded all expectations, with our score soaring by nearly 20% increase! In 2020 we became one of the first travel companies in the UK to certify as a B Corp, a legally binding commitment to balance profit with people and the planet. With recertification taking place every three years, the team were thrilled to discover that they had lifted their original certification score of 81.2 to 96.3 – an improvement of nearly 20%. Our co-founder and CEO Thomas Power, said: “We are over the moon with the news that we have improved our B Corp score - it’s our understanding that it is quite difficult to recertify and even more difficult to gain points. Given that you have to earn every 0.1 of a point, it's actually quite monumental to have increased our score by over 15 points to 96.3.” “In the depths of Covid, we were one of the first travel companies in the UK to pursue B Corp designation. It was a huge decision to allocate the resources needed to certify, a step in the dark. But having a positive impact has always been at the heart of what we do so it felt right. B Corp simply gave us a way to hold ourselves to account, to prove that it's more than just words. That's why it's my job to make sure we keep improving, 0.1 point at a time!” We're proud to be leading the field in sustainable travel, and partnering with some of the largest specialist travel brands in the UK market in Travel by B Corp, co- founded by us, alongside Intrepid Travel. What started with a few companies has now grown to 26 companies that share in the belief that travel is a force for good! For the last 25 years we've been tailoring exceptional holidays to the places we love. Since 2019, we've been creating an environmental legacy for our clients, carbon balancing every holiday by 160%, including international travel, which means we donate at least 1% of our revenue to the planet. Thank you to our incredible team, partners, and clients for your unwavering support on this journey. 🌎 ✨ #BCorp #Sustainabletravel #PuraAventura

Come see our Co-Founder Thomas Power's keynote speech, "7 Tales of Hidden Spain" this afternoon at 3:45pm on the Meet the Experts stage at the Destinations Holiday & Travel Show at Olympia in London! Thomas has spent more than 30 years exploring and sharing Spain and invites you to step out of Olympia and into some of his favourite corners of the Iberian Peninsula. This engaging, illustrated talk celebrates Pura Aventura's collaboration with the Spanish Tourist Board in creating holidays which celebrate the things that make Spain truly special, always surprising. https://lnkd.in/eBgDm88D