Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge recently became the first property in Nepal to receive Travelife Gold Sustainability certification, a responsible tourism badge of honour it plans to take seriously.
The property was audited on all aspects of the lodge operations – including environment, chemicals, community engagement, guest engagement, child protection, employee welfare, legal compliance, CSR and more – according to managing director, Marcus Cotton.
“Primarily, it is a validation of our own Responsible Tourism Policy and a vindication of our efforts to ensure we are focussed on the 4Cs – conservation, community, culture, commerce (or people, planet, profit),” Cotton commented.
As responsible conservation tourism is the core of the company’s ethos, the accreditation also reinforces the brand identity, he said.
But beyond serving as a marketing tool, the Travelife standard would help the company “mitigate the weaker elements of our operations”.
“The impacts of ‘green-washing’ by companies talking up their credentials but having no substance to their noisy claims, undermines our sincere efforts. Therefore, we undertake both verification and certification audits to validate our sustainability claims.”
The company is working towards its next audit in 2019.
