NomadsPath has laid out a responsible travel policy stemming from the company’s mission, vision and values. The policy aims to promote responsible and sustainable tourism and makes reference to the three pillars of sustainability:

Ecology: have low impact on the ecosystems of the local destinations. Contribute to the protection of flora and wildlife
Economy: contribute to local economies
Society: build a sense of respect, solidarity and cooperation between host communities and travellers

NomadsPath, tries to not compartmentalise between these three pillars. Our target is to take initiatives that simultaneously adhere to all three of them. For instance we buy our eco-friendly hand made biodegradable soap from Kyclos.org, a refugee social integration centre.

Accommodation : We stay in cozy family run hotels or traditional guest houses that highlight the local architecture. We always avoid to stay in big-chain resorts.

Local products: We usually suggest to our clients to prefer buying local products (goods, craft and souvenirs) from the villages we visit rather shopping from big super markets in the city. We try to keep the profit in the community.

Local guides: When we have tours and visits in archaeological sites we prefer to hire local licensed guides. They are experts on their area and in this way we contribute to local economy as for most of them this is the only income.

Meals: We choose to eat in family run taverns who provide local and traditional delicatessen so travelers will have the chance to get familiar with local culture.

Local projects and people are often integrated in our programs. Indicatively a local pottery craftsman is giving traditional pottery classes (Delphi tour) while a local organic honey producer is giving a class on bee keeping (Evia tour). If there are local environmental organizations at the target destinations, NomadsPath explores the possibility of collaboration and inclusion of relevant activities in the tours

We are trying to keep a low environmental impact. We keep a life cycle perspective and we are trying to be environmentally aware across our operations. Indicatively

Office: We are a digital, paper free bureau, thus we avoid consumption of electricity, and other natural resources (e.g. water, wood based paper). We also minimise fuel required for transport to the office and all consumption related to stationary.
Transport: While we use regular vans we follow eco-driving rules to minimise fuel consumption. When the infrastructure and a cleaner grid-mix is in place we aim to transit to electric vans. We strongly support cycling therefore we have dedicated cycling tours
Exploring the nature: We follow the 7 principles according to Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics https://lnt.org/ We travel in small groups so we have less impact on the flora and fauna in the area we visiting and we don’t disturb wildlife
Waste: We have designated spots for troughing out trash and recyclables, and we carry those to the corresponding public bins when we leave the camping area.
Water: We don’t buy plastic water bottles and we suggest our travelers to do the same. In most areas we travel the water is drinkable and travelers can fill their bottles either from the sources of the rivers or with tab water. We carry only eco-friendly and biodegradable solid soap (the soap is hand made in collaboration with the Social integration Center Kyclos.org).
Consumption: Shopping and eating locally infuses money into the community and minimizes the transport costs of goods and foods.
• Communication: we prefer digital campaigns. For all material that needs to be printed we choose recycled paper.

We have an external partner, with expertise on environmental assessments and environmental footprints who we consult to ensure environmentally friendlier operations.
We also try to establish external collaborations with national and international research institutions analysing ecosystems and biodiversity.

Workshops with locals. We do our best to facilitate interaction between travelers and local people. For this reason when possible we include workshops where travelers will experience authentic local life. The organic apiary workshop in Evia is an indicative example. The travelers will get to experience first hand what it takes to be a bee keeper

Spread history and culture. We believe that history and culture are best transmitted via traveling We always inform our travelers about the customs, traditions, local myths and fairy tales. We invite them to immerse into the cultural heritage sites or the isolated non touristic villages.

Small groups allow us to not disrupt the social routine of the host communities. It also makes it easier to have meaningful interactions.

We try to collaborate with local projects, (e.g. for the protection of wildlife) if these are present. We also try to collaborate with researchers that often visit local ecosystems for their research on biodiversity. Creating multidisciplinary teams and coupling exploration with research can create synergies and greater value.