Our Commitment:
Sustainable Travel
Since Kingfisher Journeys began in 2015, as you will see in our Mission Statement, our purpose has been to operate and deliver responsible and sustainable adventures that are fun, innovative and exciting, but above all, make a difference in Rwanda.
We aim to improve people’s lives by creating real jobs that pay a fair wage for marginalised people and communities. Indeed, by travelling to remote places with us, you help us to employ people in rural communities who may otherwise have extremely few sources of income. This regular income dramatically transforms the lives, not only of the people we work with, but also their families and whole communities.
We also support conservation, protection of the environment and are doing everything that we can to tackle climate change head on. We began by eliminating single use plastic from our tours, and today we are now working hard to make sure that everything we do has a positive impact. We will be introducing electric vehicle transfers in 2021 and aim to offer fully electric tours within a few years.
Nevertheless, there really is a climate emergency so, in addition to our signing up with Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, we encourage everyone who flies to offset the carbon emissions of your flight. More details of projects that we support in Rwanda are shared with all clients who book tours with us.
Our team in Rwanda are also engaging with local communities, helping them to remove and avoid pollution, clearing out plastic from nature (as we did for Earth Day 2021), taking part in wildlife surveys and conservation projects or planting trees to create natural habitats where native species such as birds and in the water, otters, can flourish. You can even lend a hand on some of our tours.
Since Kingfisher Journeys began in 2015, as you will see in our Mission Statement, our purpose has been to operate and deliver responsible and sustainable adventures that are fun, innovative and exciting, but above all, make a difference in Rwanda.
We aim to improve people’s lives by creating real jobs that pay a fair wage for marginalised people and communities. Indeed, by travelling to remote places with us, you help us to employ people in rural communities who may otherwise have extremely few sources of income. This regular income dramatically transforms the lives, not only of the people we work with, but also their families and whole communities.
We also support conservation, protection of the environment and are doing everything that we can to tackle climate change head on. We began by eliminating single use plastic from our tours, and today we are now working hard to make sure that everything we do has a positive impact. We will be introducing electric vehicle transfers in 2021 and aim to offer fully electric tours within a few years.
Nevertheless, there really is a climate emergency so, in addition to our signing up with Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, we encourage everyone who flies to offset the carbon emissions of your flight. More details of projects that we support in Rwanda are shared with all clients who book tours with us.
Our team in Rwanda are also engaging with local communities, helping them to remove and avoid pollution, clearing out plastic from nature (as we did for Earth Day 2021), taking part in wildlife surveys and conservation projects or planting trees to create natural habitats where native species such as birds and in the water, otters, can flourish. You can even lend a hand on some of our tours.
Kingfisher Journeys is proud to have become a Travelife Partner in April 2021
Travelife is the leading international sustainability certification in the travel sector. Integrating standards and guidelines (such as EMAS III ISO 14001, ISO 26001) for tourism it is promoted by more than 35 national travel associations in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Responsible Travel
Kingfisher Journeys also adheres to the principles and requirements of Responsible Travel, including by ensuring that we treat our staff and all workers fairly and doing everything that we can to prevent:
More details will be published about our actions to ensure Responsible Travel in our own company and all our partners in due course.
Kingfisher Journeys also adheres to the principles and requirements of Responsible Travel, including by ensuring that we treat our staff and all workers fairly and doing everything that we can to prevent:
- Sexual or any kind of exploitation of children.
- Modern slavery;
- Human trafficking; and
- Corruption and bribery.
More details will be published about our actions to ensure Responsible Travel in our own company and all our partners in due course.
Paying Taxes
We pay all our taxes that are due on our sales and profits in Rwanda. We also always make pension, maternity and community health contributions for everyone who works for us, including casual workers in the smallest communities Rwanda, and all our permanent staff have medical insurance. We do our best to help our suppliers to declare and pay their own taxes, however, if we have no choice but to use a supplier that does not (yet) declare their own taxes, we pay their tax for them because it is the right thing to do. This means that sometimes our prices are higher than if you were to pay local people cash-in-hand. However, in addition to always paying fair prices and wages, we recognise our responsibility to help the government of Rwanda fund healthcare, education and to support the welfare of all Rwandan people.
We pay all our taxes that are due on our sales and profits in Rwanda. We also always make pension, maternity and community health contributions for everyone who works for us, including casual workers in the smallest communities Rwanda, and all our permanent staff have medical insurance. We do our best to help our suppliers to declare and pay their own taxes, however, if we have no choice but to use a supplier that does not (yet) declare their own taxes, we pay their tax for them because it is the right thing to do. This means that sometimes our prices are higher than if you were to pay local people cash-in-hand. However, in addition to always paying fair prices and wages, we recognise our responsibility to help the government of Rwanda fund healthcare, education and to support the welfare of all Rwandan people.
Our Promise
When you book with us, we appreciate you are trusting us to help you travel in the right way. We take this responsibility seriously, so whether you are looking to immerse yourself in a real African culture to connect with other people or discover nature and wildlife, we will help you to make good choices that have positive impacts and make a difference to people's lives in Rwanda.
When you book with us, we appreciate you are trusting us to help you travel in the right way. We take this responsibility seriously, so whether you are looking to immerse yourself in a real African culture to connect with other people or discover nature and wildlife, we will help you to make good choices that have positive impacts and make a difference to people's lives in Rwanda.
