Across Europe – Responsible tourism policy

Across Europe is a tour operator with a focus on responsible travel. We believe, that tourism is a force for good and are passionate to help our clients discover, understand and cherish our planet`s diversity, unique nature and cultural heritage.

Responsible tourism comes in many ways, and includes all sustainability issues plus the way we behave and act in order to solve them. In other words, tourism is what we – as tourism professionals and tourists – make it.

We can be individually responsible and collectively responsible, we can show examples, we can educate, develop and promote behavior which can reduce the negative impact and show the positive, unique and authentic experience travel can bring. Responsible tourism is about how tourism functions, respecting the nature, the people, the cultures…. our Planet.

When we understand our responsibility, we can challenge ourselves to make the change, to be confident in our abilities to act in a positive way, to achieve results.  

Being responsible is part of the business culture and ethics and it involves sustainable use and conservation of resources, reducing waste and pollution, supporting local communities, cherishing and protecting the biodiversity on our planet. Tourism depends on resources and the absence of resource protection undermines its potential for development.

Tourism is one of the largest and most important world industries. It accounts for 11% of the world’s GDP and 12% of its exports. Despite regional problems, crises and pandemics, it shows and increasing ability to adapt and survive, because of the humans` longing to explore and experience new places. Tourism provides a livelihood for millions of people and enables billions to travel and immerse themselves in the cultural and natural resources of various destinations.

Across Europe has signed Tourism Declares Climate emergency declaration, and in this way we joined the global community of more than 400 tourism organisations, companies and professionals, all committed to delivering a Climate Action Plan aligned with the need to cut emissions in half by 2030.

We strongly believe in the necessity to contribute to sustainable and responsible tourism on the ground of solidarity, mutual respect, ethics, equal opportunity and human rights, cultural integrity and improving of quality of life of all people.   

Across Europe`s aim is to demonstrate responsible tourism policies and influence all partners and clients, by engaging them in understanding the strategic need for improvements in tourism and its sustainability. We understand that it is of utmost importance to continuously communicate and collaborate and expect our staff and stakeholders to integrate sustainable thinking into their behaviour.

The aims of our responsible policy are:

1. To involve, influence and educate our staff, partners and clients for the importance of behaving and acting in a sustainable way

2. To demonstrate effective sustainability management within the company and show an example

3. To help and give practical support

4. To maximize the social and economic benefits for the local communities, nature and cultural sites, to minimize the negative impacts

5. To create and promote more sustainable travel, to refine the company understanding and continue improving the quality of its services. 

OUR SUSTAINABILITY RESULTS in 2024:

A successful year with many satisfied clients, impactful partnerships, challenging initiatives, new friendships and products has passed. We have celebrated our 20th birthday!

And we are dedicated to collaborating as a team and contribute to offering more responsible tourism, with care for our environment, local communities and customers. Our efforts to give back to the community grew – what did we achieve:

– we have increased further the offers of small hotels and accommodation in order to support local businesses, we continued to encourage the meeting with local people, the demonstrations of Bulgarian way of life, culture, crafts and cuisine
– we continued to promote trips outside the active tourist season via our web-site and towards our partner tour operators
– we continued to promote walking tours, especially in urban environments and without the use of transport, we continued to encourage the use of public transport, including buses and trains. The share of tours booked using trains/ public transport tours in Bulgaria increased by 10% in comparison with 2023.

-we participated in initiatives for collection and recycling of plastic and paper.
-we have optimized the use of paper in our office and are happy with the further digitalization of a large part of the organizational documentation
-we conducted and participated in various trainings with an ecological focus.

-we offer our employees the opportunity to participate in voluntary climate and social campaigns during working days

– we updated our company web-site and included a web-page with our sustainability policy, we started communicating our sustainability results via our social media profiles and our web-site

– we created a file with relevant information for protected areas in Bulgaria and started sharing it with our foreign partners

– we started measuring the use of electricity in our office and achieved our aim for consumption reduction of more than 15% in comparison with 2023

– we calculated our office approximate carbon footprint with the free CO2 calculator of Ecorand to about 18.05 tons. The site`s proposal was to offset by planting 722 trees, which we actually did.

– we started calculating the average CO2 emissions per traveller per day in Bulgaria in order to have a clear view of the sustainability of the packages we offer and be able to search methods to reduce these emissions.

– we continued monitoring the customers satisfaction of all trips we organized in Bulgaria and shared the information with our outgoing partners.

As a tour operator that values the nature and people of Bulgaria, below we share with you a list of some of the initiatives we participated in and carried out throughout the past 2024:

🌳 We donated funds for planting 1,000 trees in Bulgaria;
🐝 We adopted a beehive, home to over 60,000 hardworking bees;
♻️ We recycled 200 kg of paper collected from our office and our families;
🌱 We use public transportation and walk to the office to reduce the carbon footprint we leave behind.
🎓 We made a donation to Bulgarian Science and gifted two schools a lifetime subscription to the website nauka.bg
📚 We gave book, training, and cultural event vouchers to our employees
👴 We donated funds to the Foundation “Predai Natatŭk” to support elderly care homes
🎄 Christmas cards from the “Christmas Star” project, created by children from disadvantaged backgrounds, were sent to our international partners and corporate clients
♻️ We participated in the “Caps for the Future” campaigns
🐾 We donated funds to support the needs of stray animals at the “Fermata” shelter

We believe that every small contribution matters! 💗We are inspired by new ideas and would be happy if you could share them with us 🤗

For questions and remarks related to our sustainability/CSR policies, please contact Sirma or Maya at office@across-europe.net