Read All About Whole Travel

Founded in 2006, Whole Travel is a portal for discovering sustainable travel opportunities. What does this mean? We’ve searched the globe to bring together thousands of unique, undiscovered and most importantly sustainable travel destinations. We then deliver the information to you in an easy to use, streamlined format.

We want to change the way you search for travel – instead of thinking of dates and locations, think of experiences. Try typing “fly fishing” or “Experience of a lifetime” into our search engine and we bet you’ll find an appealing destination that you never would have discovered otherwise! Of course, if you already know the destination you desire, you can search for that too. When you have found what you are looking for, you can easily be sent directly to the resort or hotel to make your booking.

Feel confident that Whole Travel’s team of experts in sustainability, technology, Web search, consumer services and social media working have worked to create a world-class research and booking experience for you.

It’s your planet. travel it. preserve it.

What Whole Travel doesn’t do

We’re not a store. In fact, we don’t sell anything. Our goal is to help you find the most appropriate destination for you by showing you everything that is available. After you have found what you are looking for, we will put you in direct contact with your dream destination so that you can get the most accurate information direct from the horse’s mouth. We hate being limited as much as the next guy, so we’re just here to show you what’s out there and you can decide when and where to book – we’ll even send you there with a single click.

How Whole Travel makes money

It’s pretty simple – we don’t sell anything. Unlike travel agencies that take commissions on your bookings or larger tour organizers who tack on a service fee, we don’t charge our travelers anything. Instead, we make money when travelers click on our advertisements. This is an advertising revenue model for all you academic types, and our travel suppliers love it because we offer some of the most qualified leads they can get.

We know you care about how hotels treat their employees and the environment. So does Whole Travel. That’s why we developed Whole Ranking ® scores to evaluate the sustainability of our suppliers.Each hotel, resort, and tour operator answers questions about their (1) Environmental practices, (2) Economic management, (3) Social and cultural support, and (4) Customer interaction. Based on their answers, we give them a Whole Ranking score between 0 and 5 fleather™ – and we share it with you.

You can easily compare how environmentally friendly and socially responsible all of our suppliers are, and also learn more about what each of them is doing.What is sustainability?

Basically, sustainability refers to meeting people’s needs today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We at Whole Travel look to what’s known as a “triple bottom line” – people, planet, and profits. We recognize the importance of people and planet even while on vacation. Like you, we know that we’ll only be able to continue enjoying our travel destinations in the future if we protect the environment and respect the local communities we visit now.

Leave only footprints. Take only photographs.

Sustainable travel is tourism that preserves the environment while respecting and benefiting local communities – both today and into the future. It can include nature trips to ecologically sensitive areas, visits to cultural heritage sites and even stays in urban centers. Ecotourism is one part of sustainable travel. To us, sustainable travel means visiting incredible places, meeting great people, and creating memorable experiences and adventures. Whole Travel helps you minimize your ecological footprint and support local socioeconomic growth by bringing you sustainable travel destinations.

Whole Travel = Sustainable travel

Feel good about your vacation from the moment you start planning, and long after you return. Our travel providers care about their impact on people and the environment around them. Their business practices conserve natural resources, promote local economic development and educate travelers about the ecology, history and culture of their destination. We offer sustainable travel options for everyone – from high-class luxury hotels to huts in the rainforest that are way off the beaten path. Whole Travel tries to avoid “green-washing” and ensures the sustainability of our destinations through Whole Ranking. You can see each hotel’s Whole Ranking scores, and read about their philosophies in “Their Story”.

Greening the travel industry

Whole Travel helps support Whole Travel Foundation, a separate non-profit organization whose mission is to improve sustainability in travel and tourism worldwide. The Foundation licenses and administers Whole Ranking, and supports hotels and communities in their efforts to become more sustainable. Visit the Whole Travel Foundation website to learn more about their projects and Whole Ranking, or to make a donation.

Source: Whole Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm and is filed under News, Verticals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.