At EXO, we believe sustainability is not just a trend but a necessity. And with more than 150,000 people travelling with EXO in any given year, we are uniquely positioned to make a big difference.
For this reason, we continuously seek innovative ways to make travel more sustainable and to inspire our guests and the travel industry to follow suit.
One such initiative is Travel for Good, EXO’s systematic framework used to evaluate the sustainability of our travel experiences and promote those that are most impactful.
‘We looked at ways to motivate our team to become champions of sustainability and how we can get them to play a key role in influencing consumer behaviour’, explains Ruben Dersken, EXO’s Director of Product.
‘One impactful solution we discovered was engaging travel consultants to look closely at what we are selling and to start selling more positive experiences, hotels and transportation’.
This was the genesis of Travel for Good, the cornerstone of EXO’s transformative approach to travel.
‘Filtering the collection of Travel for Good products makes it easy for our travel consultants and partners to identify and compare their options and make better informed choices’.
How does it work?
Travel for Good makes it easier for our team and our partners to identify and promote more sustainable travel options to travellers.
Each of our experiences, tours and hotels goes through a ratings process inspired by the three pillars of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal. Following the evaluation, products are then tagged with Travel for Good icons on our website and within our digital tools.
Ruben explains, ‘Filtering the collection of Travel for Good products makes it easy for our travel consultants and partners to identify and compare their options and make better informed choices‘.
By prioritising these Travel for Good products, we aim to influence consumer behaviour and move our partners and travellers toward greater environmental stewardship.
The Travel for Good framework allows us to evaluate and rate each EXO experience according to eleven criteria.
How are products evaluated?
To develop Travel for Good, EXO first reviewed our overall product catalogue and narrowed in on a selection of sustainability components and created threshold criteria for each.
With this framework in place, we evaluated and rated each EXO experience according to eleven criteria. These criteria include nature conservation, ethical wildlife tourism and heritage protection among others.
EXO’s multi-day tours are similarly evaluated. Although it is hard to say if a tour is truly sustainable due to its complex combination of experiences, stays and transfers, certain tours can have an overall focus on criteria that have a positive impact on their environments. These are categorised into five travel styles, such as low carbon and community empowerment.
The products are then tagged with the Travel for Good category badge and can be easily filtered on our website and other digital platforms.
‘I believe that when people have a choice to do something good in their lives, they will choose to do something good. And I want to help facilitate our 700+ staff to do good through their work‘
Why does it work?
At EXO, we believe in using business as a force for good. As a result, profitability is not our singular success metric and initiatives such as Travel for Good take on deep meaning for our team. ‘We believe firmly in the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. When we say profit, it is more than financial profit- also profit for the people living in the destinations where we operate’, Ruben explains.
In addition, we can inspire our guests and partners to follow suit.
‘I believe that when people have a choice to do something good in their lives, they will choose to do something good. And I want to help facilitate our 700+ staff to do good through their work‘, Ruben explains. ‘At EXO, we are making choices in how we do business so that we can have a positive impact on the communities where we are. And I feel that all businesses – whether in tourism or other industries- should be conscious of their impact on their destinations.’
EXO Travel is a premium Destination Management Company (DMC) providing bespoke travel solutions for tour operators and travel agencies across a growing portfolio of destinations including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Established in 1993, we’ve harnessed in-depth local knowledge and a widely-recognized penchant for authentic, groundbreaking touring to become a leading DMC for the premium travel market. As a certified B Corporation, EXO is also demonstrably committed to sustainability and using travel as a force for good.
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt=""> 
" alt="">