Responsible Travel
Travel Right, make a difference.
Travelling for pleasure is a privilege. But we have seen what a massive difference travel can make to people who have nothing. Travel should be sensitive, and any transformation must be for the better.
Before founding the African and Oriental Travel Company, we built and operated a bush lodge and dive centre in Tanzania. Before that Raf started and operated the first dive centre in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India). We saw the reality of poverty and the abuses visited on the poorest people through bad governance and thoughtless self-seeking “aid” projects. Without first realising it, we saw the difference responsible tourism made to the villages around us. When we realised what a difference it made, we streamlined our operation to directly benefit our local hosts.
We don’t live in an equal world and we live in a world with ecological damage neither issue is abating. We know that we MUST reduce carbon emissions and yet we MUST uplift the lives of those who live in poverty. Our world is only sustainable if all of us benefit.
A big part of practising responsible travel for us is ensuring we are working with local partners who share our values. More importantly, we also want to make sure that our suppliers get a fair deal and that our customers receive unbeatable service. We prefer to work with highly qualified drivers, guides and local hoteliers and pay a fair price for the quality service that they provide.
We do not just believe in transforming people’s lives, we know it works, because we have done it ourselves in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. We continue to positively affect people’s lives through you, our travellers. We know that this is worth getting on a flight for. This page gives examples of some of what we have done and continues to do.
Raf and Francisca Jah
Founders of African and Oriental Ltd
Responsible Travel
What we did..
PEMBA ISLAND- TANZANIA
We built an eco lodge in Pemba Island, using locally sourced sustainable materials. We employed local villagers and craftsmen and paid them directly. There was no rich foreign or off island middleman. We brought in western experts who gave their time teaching the local unemployed new techniques of plumbing, carpentry and electrical work. Many of these people then found jobs using these new skills.
We hired only local staff (and many first time female employees) for our entire hotel and dive centre. We trained casual farm hands to become waiters; we took fishermen and made them expert boat captains. We sent our brightest staff to year long hospitality training courses in Zanzibar. As our staff turned over naturally, we trained more and more people.
We funded schools in Zanzibar and Pemba. We transported 300 pairs of football boots to Pemba Island for village football teams. We funded a training program in Zanzibar that took young swimmers and taught them to scuba-dive. We then trained the best to become dive leaders who all found jobs elsewhere.
We had a policy of hiring divorcee women and single mothers. We changed people’s lives, for the better. We literally turned beggars into family providers, while building their dignity and self-esteem.
By the time we sold our business, we estimated that our company was positively affecting 200 families in the local area. With the Swahili extended family that means that 2000 people in the north of Pemba were indirectly positively affected by one 10-room lodge.
We sold the lodge to someone of the same mind set. They invested more money into the lodge and employed more people, thereby sustaining our achievements. The creation, building and sustaining of Swahili Divers/Kervan Saray Beach lodge and the positive effect this has had on the community of northern Pemba will remain the greatest achievement of our lives.
What we do now
We only promote responsible kind of travel. We select local partners who share our values. We work with lodges across Africa which are directly involved in protecting key habitats and endangered wildlife. We only use suppliers that train and employ local guides. We try to deal with independent, family owned businesses where we know the owners and we know the money you pay goes back into the pockets of the local people. Here are some examples of what we do:
IMVELO
Imvelo are an incredible organisation in Western Zimbabwe which only train and hire local people for every job except camp manager. They dig and maintain boreholes for water for the elephants to survive the dry season. They build schools and educate children on how to respect nature and wildlife. They have projects to ameliorate the conflict between humans and animals. Specifically we support the Imvelo Rhino Project. These Rhinos are guarded by former poachers, and the upkeep of the entire project is done by local people from the local area. The idea is to increase the local Rhino population.
ZANZIBAR
Zanzibar has hundreds of hotels, many of which are owned by large corporations, who bring in staff from outside the island. Profits are offshored and the local community sometimes feel resentful towards this. We support numerous organisations in Zanzibar who promote local education and local employment. We also only use small lodges with local staff and we know from first hand experience that our divers make a huge difference to the local population.
Specifically we support “Pack for a purpose.” Through which educational supplies are correctly directed at those who need them.
We also support this school in Zanzibar: http://stonetownhotels.com/make-a-footprint/
TANZANIA
This is where we started our main conservation and development activities. We simply cannot list everything we do. We support our suppliers who in turn build schools, send staff for training and support families of staff and former staff when needed. Every supplier we use in Tanzania has to have a development, conservation or upliftment project or we do not use them.
We make donations where requested, by our suppliers for specific projects. An example of how you can make a difference is by buying a carbon offset: https://www.carbontanzania.com/
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
We feel a huge close affinity to the people of Papua New Guinea. Our land tours there are basic in nature support many local people in villages. Our divers all contribute to supporting local projects by each individual resort.
Specifically, we support the Max Benjamin Legacy fund in New Britain. Max and Alan Raebe created the dive tourism industry in PNG. He started a school in Walindi, and this needs ongoing funds. Many of the School’s graduates go on to work in tourism. Max passed away in 2020. The legacy fund is our way of keeping alive his dream of an educated, prosperous Papua New Guinea.
EGYPT
Our partner in Egypt, Faisal Khalaf, owner of Red Sea Explorers, has deep rooted love for educating and promoting not just the his crews, but their wider families. Apart from the standard RSE training program takes illiterate and uneducated fishermen and turns them into seamen, skippers, chefs and divers. RSE also works with local orphanages and disabled children to promote eco awareness through an interactive process and something so simple as ‘taking kids out for a day on the boat and show them the reefs and fish’.
Specifically: we support his marine tourism integration project. This rewards fishermen who identify possible wreck sites, and then continues to reward them for their understanding of conservation. This augments the income of the fishermen, and negates their need to fish unsustainably just to make ends meet.
WHAT CAN YOU DO
A large part of traveling responsibly is down to how you act when you visit a new destination. Your very presence in holidays that we organise make a huge positive difference to the local people. You can choose to uplift the lives of others by travelling with African and Oriental.
