Ethics and Responsible Travel

Ethics

When travelling with Gap Year Diver you will be entering a foreign country where host cultures and customs can be very different from back home. Day-to-day life such as eating and drinking habits, religion, shopping, greetings and social events may be done differently from what you are used to.

Part of your responsibility when entering a foreign culture is to have respect for the host culture and customs. To ensure your impact is always positive and never damaging, we have taken steps to educate and increase your awareness about your host culture and destination before you travel.

Gap Year Diver has taken the following steps to ensure preservation of the host culture and its environment and a safer and more rewarding experience for all travellers.

Pre-departure travel advice
We provide our customers with comprehensive information before departure regarding insurance, visas, flights and vaccinations so that our customers are prepared for travel

Pre-departure destination information
Aside from the infromation on this website, Gap Year Diver provides customers with an information pack detailing country facts. These facts include infomation about location, religion, natural hazards, culture, population, government, spoken languages, travel, communications, weather, shopping and a range of web links for further inforamtion.

FCO
We like our customers to know about their chosen country before departure. Gap Year Diver always promotes safe travel and is part of the FCO 'Know before you go' campaign. We recommend customers to visit this website before departure for official and up-to-date country news and developments.

Reading about a destination and the culture is never the same until you actually visit the country! We take great care and effort to educate our customers before departure but it is very much up to each customer to act responsibily and safely whilst overseas.

If you go on to travel with us, please spend time studying the country before you leave. Whilst in your host country, try to understand and respect local cultures and customs, get involved with local communities and initiatives when possible and purchase locally sourced products to support local businesses.

Environment

Gap Year Diver is conscious about the environmental impact of tourism and we encourage our travellers to do their bit to protect the planet when travelling. Below are a few ideas about how you might go about minimising the effect of tourism on the environment...

CO2 Flight emissions
There's little doubt the CO2 emissions from air travel are detremental to our environment. If you would like to offset the carbon emissions from your flights we would encourage you to visit an organisation like www.climatecare.org

Corals
Please do not touch, break or stand on corals!! PLEASE!! Coral reefs are shrinking and deteriorating at great speed and this is mainly due to tourism and pollution. If you see anyone damaging reefs, don't be afraid to go up to them and tell them to stop it!

Marine Life
Please don't touch the marine life. Some marine life may sting or bite you, which is obviously not good! Other marine life may die if touched and man-handled!

Plastic bottles
In a lot of the countries in which we operate, plastic bottles are a real problem. Please compact the bottles and dispose of them in a bin / trash can or even better, in a recycling unit if you can find one!

Plastic bags
Do you need that plastic bag for a bottle of water and a pack of chewing gum? Please say 'no' to plastic bags when not required. Maybe take your own bag or recycle your old plastic bags...

Water
Water is a precious commodity in a lot of countries. Don't leave taps running. Have showers instead of baths etc

Use your legs!
Try walking places instead of taking taxis. A lot of our destinations have old vehicles with terrible emissions

General Waste
Use waste bins for all rubbish...dropping it on the floor will result in the wind blowing it somehwere like the sea. So unless you want to dive on piles of rubbish, please use bins for all your waste.