Responsible Travel

We believe in socially responsible tourism

As a company investing back into our country is a pivotal part of the business model and is something that  we  strive to incorporate  in  every experience  we offer,  whether that’s  in the form of creating  employment opportunities, promoting entrepreneurship or donating to a charity that we have partnered with.

Experiences such as dinner with a local family offers them an extra income, and provides our guests an authentic experience of a traditional home cooked meal as well as an insight on what dinner time looks like in a Pakistani household.

A proportion of the transaction fee goes towards the learning and  development of  the  refugees  with whom  we  work to create   our  Meet  the  Artisan. This is  one of  the sustainability projects  enabling them to  become self-sufficient  and investing in the long term rather than momentary

Lets Own Our Environment

Looking after the environment  is  something that we  must all take  ownership of, this is  of  particular  importance  to  us because  whilst  we  wish  to  promote  tourism to Pakistan and particular in the rural areas, we also want to ensure that we maintain the cleanliness and beauty it has to  offer  so  that  generations  of the future can also enjoy these habitats and most importantly the local community are not negatively impacted by the tourism we bring in.

One of the initiatives we have is to advise our customers to take bags with them so they can carry their rubbish back with them, where bins are not readily available. We will be investing in Tote Bags in the near future, which will gift to all customers when they start their tour, so that they can carry their rubbish back to the hotel or wherever they can safely dispose of.

There is a shortage of water globally, however, this is even greater in the developing part of the world, particularly in Pakistan, we advise all our customer to be considerate when having showers, particularly in the Northern Parts of Pakistan.

Our partnering companies with whom we do the trekking tours are very passionate about preserving the environment therefore the trekking routes that we use are ones that are not causing excessive damage to the natural habitat.

Conservation of natural resources is important

There  is  a  shortage  of  water   globally,  however,  this   is  even   greater  in  the developing part of the world, particularly in Pakistan, we advise all our customer to be considerate when having showers, particularly in the Northern Parts of Pakistan.

We believe in Social Enterprise based Tourism

A key part of our company’s philosophy is to ensure that the locals benefit from the tourism we bring in. As a result, we advise and recommend our customers to permit us to build in our socially responsible experiences within their itinerary e.g. Making a tandoori nan, playing street cricket with the  local children  or food tours  which are  carried out with local cafes and home chefs. All we request is that our customers tip them, recommending them to tip a  minimum  of Rs.5000 or if they are in  a  large  group of 12 Rs.1000 each. We want to encourage entrepreneurism amongst the community rather than just donating.

We believe that Tourism for a country is only successful  if it  benefits the  local community. Where permissible and with the  agreement of  our customers,we use Air BnB, using the homes of local residence to give our customers a more authentic feel and to ensure the local community benefit from the tourism we bring in.

Our Food Tours developed with Chefling Tales have been done with local cafes, restaurants & home chefs to provide them with an additional source of income and a really history lesson to our customers, educating them about the roots of the ingredients used and the dish made, beyond just eating these.

Our Artisan Tour in Swat has been developed as an experience with the Swat Valley Guild, in which we deliver workshops to our clients in conjunction with the refugees in Swat, who prior to the terrorism used to have a thriving trade in handicraft and embroidery. The experience  we  have developed  enables our  customers  to learn  about  the  organic dying, embroidery and weaving processes. During the 4 – 6 day workshop, they make their own scarf, which they are able to take  back with them as a souvenir. £60 of every package goes towards the Learning and Development of these ladies to ensure they are trained at an international level so that they can become suppliers to a global market. We are in conversation with London School of Fashion, to see if this could become part of an accredited unit for their students. The rational being that these students could be tomorrows couture designers, if they are exposed to the unique work of this region now than tomorrow they could commission this very  community  with  work, hence reviving their trade again. If you belong to an organisation who work in the creative textiles, fashion or furniture industry, please  do  get in touch so we can  explore how we could work together on this.

Giving back is important

Wherever possible and where our knowledge is suited, we provide free consultancy to some of the tourism ministers, in order to help influence the direction of tourism in Pakistan, ensuring that  the accommodation  built  is in  keeping with the natural environment, using local  material to   recycle  natural  materials  and  use  local  labour force to create employment.

We are also advising them on their tourism strategy to ensure there are enough bins to keep the areas tidy & to ensure a system  is in  place for  rubbish  collection and  its correct  disposal. Advising  them  to  focus  on  responsible  tourism promotion   to  ensure  we   focus   on   quality   of  tourists  over   quantity  so    that   the   natural    habitat   is  preserved.

We are in the process of becoming an  ambassadors of  Pakistan Alliance for Girls’ Education (PAGE),  a charity focused on providing education to school going girls who are unable to do so.The capacity in which we plan to work with them is along the lines of employment.

Xperience Pakistan has a core focus to educate the overseas audience about Pakistan and its history but particularly 3rd & 4th generation overseas Pakistani’s, one of the ways to do this is to educate them of its history. We are exploring ways on how we can  provide  some  training to these  girls so that they  can help create content for our  YouTube channel,  which would  entail these  girls teaching Pakistan studies to overseas  children. 

All revenue earned from the channels would go back to the girls involved, thus providing them with a source of income. This idea is in its infancy and will probably take 6 months for us to understand fully, how this would work and what other employment  opportunities  we  could  offer so that  they can  pursue  their  education.  Whilst  we could donate,  one  of  the   principals  of  our  company  is  to  drive entrepreneurship    among    the    local    community    so    that    they    can    sustain    themselves    in    the  long  run.