News

IGTOA member, Via Natura,  announced that its boat, the M/Y Monserrat, has been certified by the Smart Voyager program. As one of Ecuador’s leading conservation organizations, Conservación y Desarrollo <http://www.ccd.org.ec>  developed the Smart Voyager sustainable tourism certification program. This program is a member of the Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas (www.certificationnetwork.org <http://www.certificationnetwork.org/>  .

The program is designed to minimize the impact of tour boats in the Galapagos through monitoring and inspection of boats, proper management and storage of maintenance facilities, creation of adequate crew quarters and amenities, training, and follow up inspections. 

Achieving certification is not easy. Boat operators that meet the program’s high standards are certified and may use the Smart Voyager® seal of approval in marketing their services. The seal gives travelers the assurance that they are supporting operators who care about the environment, wildlife conservation, and the well-being of workers and local communities. “After much dedication, resources and time, we have achieved this important award which represents our commitment to conservation and sustainable tourism”. 

Via Natura says that they and Rainforest Alliance have also established an alliance to support best management practices in Sustainable tourism since September 2007.  This makes our Company one of the few inbound Tour Operators that promote this vision in mainland Ecuador”. They also reported that they have a new sustainable travel department and our sustainable hotel property collection in Ecuador.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under IGTOA Members, Conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.