Problems with Plastic when Traveling in Laos
At Khiri Travel Laos we have been striving hard to develop sustainable tourism initiatives and inspired tour experiences that benefit local communities and enable foreign visitors to experience the true face of Laos.
As part of these sustainable initiatives, an important step was our decision last year to completely replace single-use plastic water bottles with glass bottles on all our transfers in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, thus dramatically reducing the number of plastic bottles we use in our daily operations.
In addition to only using glass bottles during transfers, we have also introduced them to our suppliers and where possible to the communities with which we partner when creating our signature tour experiences. For example, our home-cooking experience in Luang Prabang with Ms. Noy now only uses glass water bottles during cooking sessions. We are also working on a number of initiatives with hotels and local NGOs to ensure that throwaway plastic bottles soon become a thing of the past in many other places of business.
Other initiatives in support of these changes include encouraging a plastic-free environment at our Vientiane office, where tiffin boxes are now provided to all our staff. Furthermore, our guides receive additional training on the best practices for becoming a sustainable traveler – the do’s and don’ts – which they are then able to share with our clients.
On the sustainability front, we continue to support local initiatives by sourcing welcome gifts for clients from local communities that produce authentic, hand-crafted products, thereby avoiding unnecessary plastic packaging.
Khiri Travel Laos is also in the process of becoming Travelife certified, with its first audit expected to take place early next year – an important step in boosting our responsible tourism credentials. Once reaching the final stage of the Travelife certification program, we will join Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Indonesia, where Khiri Travel’s tour operations are already Travelife certified.
For bookings or more information on Khiri Travel Laos’ sustainable tourism initiatives and tours, get in touch with us at: [email protected]
