... but the world is your oyster...
... but the world is your oyster...
... but the world is your oyster...
Responsible Travel
Fundamental to our philosophy is that wildlife travel should ultimately help benefit the habitats visited as well as the local people and wildlife that lives there. The conservation and protection of ecosystems is therefore central to our vision. By using local guides and choosing our partners carefully, we aim to ensure that local communities and wildlife sanctuaries ultimately benefit through our endeavors.
We believe that ecotourism has the potential to change lives and is one of the best ways to conserve endangered habitats and species. Responsibly managed, eco tourism can provide incomes to poorer communities so that it becomes a more attractive, viable and sustainable alternative to other economic activities, which are detrimental to wildlife and the environment.
In essence, we aim to elevate the role that ecotourism plays in the daily lives of people across the globe. We do this by helping to add value to regions, so for example that a forest becomes a more valuable resource for communities when it is left as a nature reserve - because it provides people with jobs as guides or park rangers instead of a resource to be plundered for poaching or logging.
For our wildlife group tours, we use locally owned accommodation as well the very best local guides. In addition we team up with leading naturalists, researchers and conservation organisations to collaborate on projects to conserve and protect endangered habitats and species and promote environmental awareness and education.
In addition they conduct wildlife tours to regions such as the extremely biodiverse Western Ghat’s region - amongst the most biodiverse regions on the planet, facing multiple threats from increasing human population encroachment to poaching and deforestation for timber.
"Thanks Paul for all your work organizing trip to Thailand, I had the time of my life! The whole trip from start to finish was amazing so thank you for all your hard work behind the scenes putting it all together! I'd also like to thank Gerry Martin for sharing his expertise with us, without both you guys the trip just wouldn't 've been the same!"
Barry Potts, UK
The Gerry Martin Project
Greig Smith Travels have been collaborating with Gerry Martin since 2007 in devising and running a range of herpetological holidays, herp tours and snake safaris, thru to serious scientific expeditions.
TGMP are committed to wildlife and habitat conservation through education and research. One important project they are currently working on, is their snakebite mitigation research. In India, approximately 50,000 people die from snakebite each year, and a great many more people are bitten. TGMP are travelling throughout India collecting venom samples from snakes and working with scientists so that better antivenom’s and snakebite protocols may be developed. They also work with schools and educational institutions and local communities to help promote awareness of snakebite treatment, as education is one of the best methods helping to prevent snakebite.
Greig Smith Travels continue to collaborate with and support the valuable work of the Gerry Martin Project. Contact us for details of our next tour.
We ensure that we fully brief clients who travel with us about the country that they are visiting and its social norms and conventions. Ultimately we encourage clients to have a “traveller” mindset as opposed to a “tourist” mentality and to travel with an open mind. This helps ensure meaningful and dignified cultural exchanges as opposed to touristy and artificial visits. We also strive to help develop eco-tourism in remote and lesser known areas, so that its benefits reach local communities.
Social Responsibility
Environmental Responsibility
All around the world, ecological habitats, ecosystems and thousands of species of flora and fauna are under threat from burgeoning human populations, deforestation, pollution, poaching and more. And just one of the ways in which we support conservation efforts is through carefully devised wildlife trips, created by collaborating with leading wildlife professionals and naturalists, in which people can participate on expeditions which have a genuine and positive impact on conservation.
We prefer to use hotels and lodges that have strong environmentally responsible practices and ethics that they can clearly demonstrate. We also actively support and collaborate with conservation focused organisations.