Behind Our Choices: Why We Are Working with More Sustainable Travel Partners
At Gulliver Expeditions, we believe that creating a great journey is about much more than choosing a beautiful hotel, a comfortable lodge or an exciting experience.
Over the years, we have become increasingly aware that every supplier we choose has an impact.
Where does the money spent by our travelers go? Does it create jobs for local people? Does the hotel purchase from local farmers? Does an experience support the community behind it? How are water, energy and waste managed? Is wildlife being respected? Are local traditions being preserved and shared responsibly?
These questions have encouraged us to look deeper into the way we design our trips and select our partners.
Becoming More Conscious About Our Choices
Sustainability is a learning process, and we know that there is always more we can do.
For Gulliver Expeditions, becoming a more responsible tour operator does not mean simply adding the word “sustainable” to our trips. It means becoming more conscious about the decisions we make every day.
One of those decisions is choosing who we work with.
Hotels, eco-lodges, guides, transportation companies, restaurants, community projects and local experiences — including our Ecuador Amazon rainforest tours — are all part of the journey we create for our travelers. By choosing them more carefully, we can help direct tourism toward businesses that are making genuine efforts to create a positive impact.
Our goal is therefore not perfection, but continuous improvement and learning. We want to ask more questions, look deeper into the work of our partners, understand the real impact of their practices, and continuously evaluate better alternatives.
An important part of this learning also comes from our travelers. Over the years, we have seen how deeply some of our clients have been touched by projects that protect nature, empower local communities, create meaningful employment, or give something back to the places they visit. Their feedback has helped us realize that these actions truly matter and can make a journey much more meaningful.
This inspires us to be more conscious about the partners we choose and to work with businesses that are aligned with our sustainability policies and values. We believe that when travelers, local communities, tourism companies and responsible partners move in the same direction, small individual actions can become a much greater collective impact.
Looking Beyond Comfort and Service
Quality, safety, comfort and excellent service will always be important when selecting our partners. But today, our evaluation goes further.
We increasingly look at what happens behind the experience.
We value partners that:
- Employ and train people from local communities.
- Purchase food and products from local farmers, producers and artisans.
- Work with local guides and community businesses.
- Reduce plastic, waste and unnecessary consumption.
- Implement water- and energy-saving measures.
- Use renewable energy or environmentally responsible infrastructure.
- Support conservation, reforestation or ecosystem restoration.
- Protect wildlife and natural habitats.
- Contribute to community, education or social initiatives.
- Preserve and share local culture respectfully.
Not every partner will meet every criterion, and sustainability can look very different depending on the destination. What matters to us is seeing real actions, genuine commitment and a willingness to improve.
Seeing It for Ourselves
An important part of this process is understanding what our partners actually do.
Members of the Gulliver Expeditions team visit and inspect many of the hotels, lodges and experiences that we offer. These visits allow us not only to evaluate the quality of the service but also to speak directly with the people behind the projects and understand their environmental and social initiatives.
We want to know the story behind a sustainability claim.
Sometimes that story is a lodge employing families from a nearby community. Sometimes it is a hotel buying vegetables directly from local farmers, a project protecting an important ecosystem, or an experience creating opportunities for local guides and artisans.
Seeing these initiatives first-hand helps our team understand what we are selling and allows us to communicate these stories more honestly to our travelers.
Moving Beyond Greenwashing
Sustainability has become an important word in tourism — but using the word does not automatically make a business sustainable.
For this reason, we want to look beyond labels and marketing claims and focus increasingly on concrete practices and real impact.
We ask questions. We visit when possible. We listen to our travelers. We learn from our local partners. And we continue developing our own criteria for responsible purchasing and supplier selection.
This helps us make better-informed decisions and recognize businesses that are genuinely trying to make tourism more beneficial for their destinations.
Why Supporting Local Matters
One of our priorities is understanding how tourism can create greater benefits for the communities our travelers visit.
When a hotel employs local people, purchases food from nearby farmers, works with local guides or buys products from artisans, tourism income circulates within the destination.
The impact can extend far beyond a single booking.
It can create employment, strengthen small businesses, provide opportunities for young people, support traditional skills and encourage communities to protect the cultural and natural resources that make their destinations unique.
This is why supporting local businesses and communities is an important part of our approach to sustainability. You can also explore our guide to sustainable destinations in Peru for more examples of travel with a positive impact.
Our Travelers Are Part of the Change
Travelers also have an important role.
Every accommodation, excursion, meal and locally produced item included in a journey represents a choice.
By explaining why certain partners and experiences have been selected — whether on our Peru tours or elsewhere in South America — we want to help our travelers understand the impact those choices can have.
A journey can still be comfortable, exciting and unforgettable while also supporting local employment, conservation and community development.
In fact, we believe understanding the people and stories behind an experience often makes travel even more meaningful.
A Journey We Are Taking Together
We do not claim to have all the answers.
Responsible tourism is an ongoing journey for Gulliver Expeditions, just as it is for the tourism industry as a whole.
What we can do is continue asking better questions, measuring our progress, training our team, listening to communities and travelers, and giving preference to partners who demonstrate responsible practices — just as we do when planting hope in Antisana through reforestation with local partners.
We also want to recognize and promote the partners who inspire us. By sharing their good practices, we hope to give them greater visibility while encouraging other businesses in our supply chain to continue improving.
Step by step, these decisions can help build a tourism industry in which unforgettable experiences for travelers go hand in hand with stronger communities and better protection of the places we are privileged to visit.
Travel better. Support local. Leave a positive impact.
