by Itumeleng Pooe, Managing Director Afri-Centric

While the major global economies, in the world, bear much of the responsibility for polluting the environment, we should not permit short-term, self-interests to hold us back from making a contribution. We all owe this commitment to the generations that will come after us. Otherwise, we will be handing over to our grandchildren, a poison chalice.

Being in the business of curating luxury experiences, we constantly strive to add a number of elements to our itineraries and events. Sustainability is in fact, at the centre of what we do. We realise that travel does cause carbon dioxide pollution, and we look forward to seeing developments which will minimise this impact, however, without the travelers there would be much fewer jobs and sustainability of wild-life, businesses and the environment would suffer. 

Although this cannot be oversimplified, there are many dimensions which in themselves provide a number of opportunities to impact-sustainability, be it socially or economically. Areas such as community development, product development and support, skills and job creation for youth, women advancement, conservation and general practices of how we run our lives.

Often when one travels it is easy to gravitate towards convenience as we tend to consume what is within easy reach, rather than to go an extra 100m to buy from small businesses and operators along the road.

Some of the simple practical things we did recently while we stayed at a resort in Zanzibar:

• Enjoyed the massage on the beach by local women who are entrepreneurs earning a living by offering this service to holiday makers on the beach – Sabrina was exceptional
  
• Bought colourful beach sarongs from villagers selling by the roadside not far from our resort
  
• Instead of using the shuttle operated by the resort for our tours, we used Yusuf whom we met through our intermediaries in Kenya – African Adventure Specialists we have formed a relationship with Yusuf to handle our forthcoming projects to take place on the coast of Zanzibar – longevity of partnership right there.
  
• Bought beautiful gifts and curios while chatting to locals sharing stories and get to hear what inspires them.

One would ask, why did we not just buy these at resort as they do have a well-stocked store?

We stretched our reach so that people outside the resort also benefited from our visit.

One would argue, the resort, employs people from the surrounding communities, sources the produces from small businesses in the communities However by staying there, eating and drinking made a big contribution to this, but it is good also to spread your money around the community where you are staying.

Everyone gets a slice of the pie. It is big enough for all of us.

For more information:

Kobe Tours and Safaris.

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