Photo by Louise Jasper

Alasdair Harris founded Blue Ventures, an ocean conservation enterprise supporting local fishing communities. Here, he speaks to Trudy Ross about the work they do across the globe, and the greatest challenges facing our oceans today

LUX: You have described yourself as a ‘reluctant social entrepreneur’. Can you expand on this?
Alasdair Harris: I studied zoology at University in Scotland, and was quickly hooked on marine science. I was enormously lucky to have an opportunity to study the impacts of climate change on reefs in the Indian Ocean, but was horrified by what I learned of the forecasts of ocean warming, and what that meant for the future of coral reefs. It wasn’t until I got to Madagascar − one of the poorest countries on earth − that I learned that there were also dire human implications of these unprecedented environmental changes. In particular, the impacts that climate change and overfishing were already having on the many millions of people in coastal communities that depend on the sea for their daily survival.

As a biologist I knew that the ocean is phenomenally productive, and that marine ecosystems have an amazing power to restore themselves, if we just give them the breathing space to recover. Working in Madagascar, I was struck by the overwhelming need to help communities cope with the challenges they faced from collapsing fish stocks. I saw that there was a critical need for conservation that worked for rather than against communities, harnessing the natural regenerative capacity of nature to help rebuild fisheries. But I realised that my PhD studies weren’t really going to help. So I hung up my diving fins and, with a couple of friends, I set up an organisation to try to work with coastal communities to explore ways of helping villages take practical action to rebuild their fisheries.

Photo by Garth Cripps

LUX: Can you provide some background on Blue Ventures, your goals, values, and the kinds of projects you run?
AH: Blue Ventures is a marine conservation organisation that works with coastal communities to rebuild fisheries, restore ocean life, and build lasting pathways to prosperity. We partner with traditional fishers and community-based organisations to design, scale, strengthen, and sustain fisheries management and conservation at the community level. We also bring partners together in networks to advocate for reform and share tools and best practices to support fishing communities across the globe.

Our work has helped to establish and protect vast swathes of coastal waters in Locally Managed Marine Areas, including the largest such areas in the Indian Ocean. We have also enabled fishers to boost their catches and incomes, improve their food security, and restore ocean life.

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In 2003, we started with one community in southwest Madagascar. Today, we are working across 14 countries across the tropics, protecting 17,000 km2 of vital ocean habitat and impacting the lives of more than 650,000 people.

LUX: Do you ever face resistance from locals, for whom fishing is their livelihood, when you recommend strategies which differ from their own? How do you approach this?
AH: Our approach is to work with communities to draw on the local knowledge, so that fishermen and women can come up with their own solutions to the challenges facing their seas. We can help with harnessing the power of data to enable communities to better interpret and visualise what’s going on in the water, and also by brokering learning exchanges with other communities that have piloted similar work and interventions elsewhere. We’ve helped build friendships and relationships between countless communities from dozens of countries over the years, from as far afield as Mexico and Mozambique – with community members travelling to meet others facing similar challenges.

Mangrove forest, Lambaora, south west Madagascar. Photo by Garth Cripps

LUX: What are the biggest challenges facing the fishing industry and our oceans, and what should corporations and governments be doing to combat this?
AH: The biggest challenge facing ocean fishing today is the total control and dominance of the sector by a small, and frequently highly destructive minority of predominantly unsustainable actors: so-called industrial fishing boats and companies. Conversely, the biggest group of ocean users – known as small-scale fishers – typically fishes relatively sustainably, and targets catches for local consumption and trade, supporting the livelihoods of over 100 million people, and feeding well over 1 billion.

Yet this population, which lives overwhelmingly in the so-called Global South, rarely has a voice in decisions regarding how, where, or when fishing takes place. The majority of fishing is carried out by politically powerful industrial fishing interests, which catch around one half of our seafood globally, and cause staggering damage to our oceans. The biggest proportion of this industrial catch is caught by bottom trawlers, vessels that drag weighted nets over the seabed to scrape up seafood. In some parts of the world over half of all seafood landed is caught in this way. Bottom trawling can be hugely devastating for marine ecosystems and those who rely upon them to eat and to live.

Drone shot over Barry’s Place, Atauro. Photo by Matthew Judge

LUX: Can you tell us about your work with maternal and child health, and why this is important to you?
AH: Given the lack of basic services in many remote coastal regions, in some countries we also help communities access basic healthcare through training and supporting women to serve as community health workers. We do not replace government health systems, but work to strengthen existing structures in close collaboration with government health actors and specialist NGOs. We also incubate Madagascar’s national health-environment network, which brings together 40 partner organisations to address the health needs of communities living in areas of conservation importance across the country.

Read more: Wendy Schmidt on philanthropy, technology and unexplored oceans

LUX: How can we utilise data and technology to improve the management of small-scale fisheries?
AH: Technology can play a transformative role in our mission, improving the speed, efficiency and inclusivity with which we work and communicate. From VR headsets that help communities visualise the underwater benefits of marine recovery, to satellite sensors that can track ocean warming, or monitor recovery of mangrove forests from space and provide. We’re committed to putting data and information in the hands of communities, to empowering them with the knowledge they need to rebuild fisheries.

Photo by Leah Glass

LUX: Do you believe it is possible for people to engage with marine tourism while promoting sustainable practices?
AH: Absolutely! Tourism done well can provide vital income for coastal communities worldwide, demonstrating the value of protecting the ocean. Done badly tourism can quickly undermine ecosystems, cultures and livelihoods. As tourists we have a huge role to play in being judicious in how we travel, and what practices and services we choose to support with our custom.

LUX: Finally, what advice would you give to an aspiring social entrepreneur looking to make a difference in the realm of sustainability?
AH: We’re living in an ecological emergency of unimaginable proportions and consequences. Ours is the last generation with a realistic chance of helping our species change course without causing irreparable harm to future generations and without causing catastrophic harm to most other species on our only planet. Change happens when an individual makes a decision to act. Don’t wait for someone else.

Find out more: blueventures.org

All photos courtesy of Blue Ventures

Camp Xakanaxa, on the Khwai River bank

Ella Johnson travels through Botswana on an eco-safari, where the highlight is encountering more hippos than humans – in a landscape owned by wild creatures and where humans are just fleeting visitors

Arriving at Botswana’s Makgadikgadi salt pans in the dry season feels like landing on the moon. Travel westwards by helicopter from Leroo La Tau and watch the dense African bush melt into spacescape. Step out of the aircraft onto a vast flat plain: besides the grey earth cracking underfoot, a total absence of sound predominates.

It is an extraordinary place to be on the final leg of an ultimate safari tour through northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta and beyond. A designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Okavango is a vital wetland region teeming with biodiverse wildlife and habitats, and is the chief stomping ground of Desert & Delta Safaris, one of Botswana’s foremost tour operators. We have been touring with Desert & Delta for the past seven days, encountering creatures and terrains of encyclopaedic variety – and now this most surprising, lunar-like landscape.

Elephant viewing from one of the EVs at Chobe Game Lodge

We had started out at Chobe Game Lodge, in the Southern African country’s northeast. It is the only permanent game lodge inside Chobe National Park (so named after the Chobe River that intersects it), and we encountered 33 elephants at the waterfront before checking in. We also get an hour’s head start over neighbouring lodges on the morning game drive: for us, the difference between a rendezvous with three lion cubs and their vanishing as other trucks piled in.

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The government’s “high-value, low volume” tourism strategy finds full expression at Chobe. The lodge, managed by locals, was the first in Africa to hire an all-female guiding team (the Chobe Angels) and the first in Botswana to electrify its safari fleet – the solar-powered boats and EVs were a game-changer when it came to proximity with the Big Five.

Chobe is as upmarket as it is eco-conscious. It is run on biogas and has its own recycling plant, where waste plastic and glass are repurposed as decking. It is also where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton celebrated honeymoon number two in 1975, and their very private suite has an infinity plunge pool. Our own room featured a roll-top bath and objets d’art from Zimbabwe, Morocco and Egypt; colours were vibrant and textures natural. Our favourite hangout was the cave-like bar, to which we headed at aperitivo hour for Amarula (Botswana’s answer to Baileys) before a meal on our private terrace.

the Honeymoon Suite patio at Chobe Game Lodge

Next came perfect isolation at our next stop, Nxamaseri Island Lodge, at the uppermost point, or Panhandle, of the Okavango. We reached it from Chobe via a short plane journey west and a boat ride through the Delta’s permanent, papyrus-lined floodwaters. The lodge occupies its own side channel, meaning we encountered more hippos than humans there. Our lodging – one of nine, connected via boardwalks through the overgrowth – was comfortable, albeit with fewer bells and whistles than Chobe. Evening meals were communal and hearty. Wi-Fi was intermittent.

The Nxamaseri region is home to around 325 of Botswana’s 500 native bird species, and we soon became adept at naming slate-coloured boubou, malachite kingfisher and Pel’s fishing owl from the comfort of our evening river cruise, G&Ts in hand. We had a more sobering experience in the mokoro, traditional wooden canoes that brought us nose to nose with crocodiles (perfectly safe, our guide testified).

We therefore welcomed the land-based trip to the Tsodilo Hills, another UNESCO World Heritage Site nearby, with cave paintings by bushmen including the San and Bantu, from 800 to 1300AD, and some reputedly far older. Although their meanings have become less intuitive over time, these paintings have been well shielded from the elements by way ofrocky overhang and ancient baobab. It is also, perhaps, the Botswana we had come to find. From our guide, Metal, we had already learnt that elephants have ten different vocalisations; that the Vogelkop bowerbird likes to decorate its nest with shiny things; that it is possible to deduce, from a pair of erratic footprints, that a guineafowl has recently met its end with a cheetah. So, too, as we studied the Tsodilo paintings more closely, rich patterns emerged.

Outdoor dining at the glass-fronted Leroo La Tau

Another short flight east across the floodwaters brought us to Camp Xakanaxa, on the banks of the Khwai River, in the arid Moremi Game Reserve. Here is a sense of drama: petrified trees dot the horizon; the fragrance of wild sage hangs heavy. Fitting, then, that our guide, TS, would race us out to catch sight of two evasive cheetahs after hours (they slinked across our path unexpectedly, our wheels kicking up dust as we screeched to a halt). Or that we’d have a close shave with Oscar, a battle-scarred hippo who loiters in Xakanaxa’s communal areas, after. Thank goodness, then, for Xakanaxa’s selection of South African reds (Saxenburg, Leopard’s Leap) to decompress after the action.

The kaleidoscope shifted again at Leroo La Tau, our final stop, in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. This is an ever-changing, aqueous environment – viewable from one of 12 glassfronted thatched suites hovering ten metres above the Boteti River, where we spent an entire afternoon watching zebras rove in their hundreds.

Read more: Ocean Fantasy: the Ritz Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

Desert & Delta offers a salt-pan sleep-out for guests staying at Leroo for three nights or longer, but take our advice and pay upfront for a helicopter ride to beat the five-hour drive through the desert. On touching down, our personal chefs cooked a three-course meal for us on the flats; our bed was as if transposed from a Four Seasons, king-sized with crisp, white sheets – and unmediated views of the Milky Way. At roughly the size of Belgium, the Makgadikgadi salt pans are the biggest in the world: to sleep on them, tentless, was to experience darkness and solitude for the first time.

Flying back to Leroo, the moonscape slid back to more familiar bush territory. It is paradoxical, perhaps, that the highlight of our safari was a place devoid of life altogether. Yet it speaks directly to the appeal of a country whose ancient landscape continues to yield up the new and unexpected. In tapping into its extremities, Desert & Delta Safaris takes an old classic and offers a highly original take.

An otherworldly sleepout at Makgadikgadi salt pans

Getting there

We travelled to Botswana via Doha with Qatar Airways. The airline’s signature Qsuites in business class have sliding-door partitions to lose visibility of fellow passengers and bring an extra element of privacy (the partitions reach to chest height, so it’s not quite like having a full suite). On boarding we were greeted with a glass of Charles Heidsieck Rose Millesime and Diptyque amenities and an on-demand dining service with a broad choice (we went for cheese and port followed by a warming Karak Chai). More sociable passengers stopped by the Sky Bar, in its own section of the plane, for a negroni mid-flight. On our layover at Doha, we stopped in the Al Mourjan Business Lounge for sushi and more champagne. Its galactic art installation and water feature made it easy to pretend we were in a five-star hotel.

Find out more: qatarairways.com

Our hosts

Chobe Game Lodge, Nxamaseri Island Lodge, Camp Xakanaxa and Leroo La Tau are among nine Botswana safari locations owned by Desert & Delta Safaris and located within Botswana’s wildlife destinations.

Find out more: desertdelta.com

This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of LUX

Photograph of the Zermatt valley by Sheherazade Photography

The yacht’s being refurbished, you’ve done Ibiza too many times, the Hamptons are too cliquey and Bodrum is so 2021. So where to head this summer? Allow LUX to offer you some recommendations from one of our absolute favourite summer destinations (and no, this is not paid-for content): Switzerland

Switzerland in summer: panoramic views, (mostly) blue skylines, clean air, no crowds, teeming wildlife, one of the highest concentrations of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, some of the best hotels in the world, and activities from kitesurfing and kayakking to glacier skiing and wine tasting. What more could you want? Perhaps, just a little guidance through the options, to get the very best out of your Helvetian experience.

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1.Zermatt
Zermatt is, in effect, the epicentre of the Alps, in a valley surrounded by more than 30 of the highest peaks in Europe, which glow white with permanent snow even on a hot summer’s day. And it’s usually warm and sunny here: the resort is on the border with Italy and if you take a telescope to the top of its highest peak, Monte Rosa, you can see the spire of Milan cathedral.

Every type of mountain activity is available, including summer skiing at the top of a Swarovski crystal-encrusted cable car. It is also a paradise for mountain dining, with more fine dining spots than St Tropez, better views, and fewer crowds. Try the Findlerhof for its beautiful local farmers’ meat and cheese platter, and epic Matterhorn views; and Restaurant Zum See for an idyllic gourmet experience in a meadow at the foot of the peaks. In the village, we had a highly memorable meal at the restaurant in the hotel Omnia, all pared-back boutique chic and astonishingly vibrant flavours.

The view from a bathroom at The Cervo Hotel

Stay at: The Cervo is Zermatt’s eco-resort, and its owner, Daniel Lauber, is a passionate and thoughtful sustainability pioneer. One of the most thoughtful sustainable hospitality experiences, from the biodegradable slippers to the renewable energy heating system – tough, at 1600m altitude. The food, all sourced locally, is both hearty and magnificent and the staff have risen impeccably to the challenge of finding excellent wines and cocktail ingredients with a local remit.

2.Badrutt’s Palace, St Moritz

Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, St Moritz

Badrutt’s is St Moritz, or so you will probably think after staying there. The hotel dominates the valley and lake like a citadel. The service became legendary even before the former Shah of Iran flew its staff out to serve a banquet marking 2500 years of the Persian Empire at the palace of, near Shiraz, in 1972. It’s the kind of hotel where the staff know what you’re thinking, before you do.

Read more: A Tasting At One Of The World’s Great Champagne Houses

The facilities make it, effectively, a holiday in one property: huge indoor pool with picture window, lawns and gardens (in the middle of St Moritz!), fine dining in a formal banquet hall which makes you feel like Audrey Hepburn (whoever you are), and across the road, its own pizzeria at Chesa Veglia – in reality a top social spot in its own right. And the views across to the mountains are inspiring.

3.Gstaad Palace

The piscine at Gstaad Palace

The Palace is a hotel that will whisk you into the jazz era even by thinking about it. This is a place where generations of European aristocrats have visited to stay and dine at; or to play tennis on its impeccable clay courts, or dance at its Greengo nightclub (in summer, it incorporates the indoor pool as a bar and terrace). It’s a perfect base for walking tours, or for strolls around Gstaad’s chi-chi high street, or just to exist in and take the air and dream of eternal youth.

4.The Alpina Gstaad

The Alpina Gstaad

Two luxury hotels in one place? Mais oui; the Palace and the Alpina are like Meursault and Margaux, we couldn’t live without either of them. The Alpina has contemporary style and vibrancy within the envelope of Alpine glamour (unlike some new luxury hotels in the Alps, it’s not pretending to be in Brooklyn), an outdoor pool with heart-melting views over the mountains, an equally gorgeous indoor pool and spa, and one of our favourite Japanese restaurants outside Japan.

5.Dinner at the Nira Alpina

Nira Alpina Stars Restaurant

The Nira Alpina is a hotel and restaurant resort on the edge of the high Engadine valley, between Lake Sils, inspiration for poets and artists, and buzzy St Moritz. Its rooftop restaurant, Stars, has a dramatic view across the valley and lakes where daytime kitesurfing gives way to reflections of the moon by night, and over to the jagged mountains on the other side. It’s at the foot of the Corvatsch mountain, which makes for energetic hiking in summer; at the end of a long walk down from the Fuorcola Surlej pass, we love indulging in a glass of Franciacorta here, followed by a bottle of vibrant Chardonnay from the nearby Bündner Herrschaft wine region, accompanied by its delicate, locally-sourced mountain food, big on herbs and vegetables from the nearby high valleys. We haven’t stayed at the hotel, but the restaurant is an experience in itself.

Melting glaciers will contribute to dramatic sea-level rises. Pictured: the Gornergletcher and Monte Rosa, Switzerland.

Professor Peter Newell

Academic Peter Newell made waves in the global media recently with a report describing how the wealthy have a disproportionate effect on climate change, and a duty to change their travel, business and leisure habits. As COP26 kicks off in Glasgow, he speaks to LUX about how moral duties increase with net worth

LUX: How do you define ‘unnecessary travel’?
Peter Newell: It is not for us as individuals to work out what counts as unnecessary travel: governments, cities and businesses can send clear signals about which travel is critical and which is largely unnecessary. Wealthy employers can set sustainable travel policies for their companies. But all of us can also exercise responsible self-restraint. Addressing poverty and social inequality means that carbon will inevitably and justifiably increase for some people, especially, but not exclusively, in the Global South.

To still live within tightening carbon budgets means cutting back on luxury emissions, including where travel to conferences and meetings is no longer necessary when virtual platforms can replace that need, as well as reducing frequent flying for holidays. It is worth remembering that just one per cent of people cause half of global aviation emissions.

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LUX: What are the ethics of travelling for sporting events and art fairs?
Peter Newell: With finite carbon budgets that have to be shared equally, some activities become harder to justify than others. We should focus less on whether a particular event is ‘essential’, because we all feel what we do is essential, and ensure that we have sustainable and low-carbon forms of travel accessible to all. But until that’s in place, there is a need to reduce unsustainable travel through policy including taxes (to subsidise affordable, low-carbon transport), restrictions on air expansion or carbon rationing. There is an issue of collective responsibility here that trumps individual whims.

LUX: Is there any validity in the idea of personal carbon offsets?
Peter Newell: Personal carbon quotas may have some value but need to be implemented carefully. Offsets are notoriously problematic, subject to double-counting and fraudulent savings, and are really just passing the costs and the responsibility for reducing emissions onto others. Displacing responsibility is not the answer.

LUX: If wealthy individuals only do what is ‘necessary’, what’s the point of being wealthy?
Peter Newell: The issue is both how much wealth people have, because emissions are very closely related to purchasing power (to buy larger homes, cars, flights etc) and how that wealth was generated in the first place. If people make their money from activities driving the climate crisis, that is part of the problem and needs to be addressed. No amount of sustainable living will compensate for that. For wealthier people, it is also about where you invest your money and how you use your influence politically.

LUX: If everybody acts ‘correctly’, jobs will be lost in the oil, aviation and other sectors.
Peter Newell: Most discussions now are about transitions – helping workers to retrain in renewable energy industries or to work in other sectors of a sustainable economy. Research suggests most of them want a secure and reasonably paid job and have no loyalty to fossil fuel companies. There is also a need for compensation and regional development plans, the like of which have been used in helping coal-dependent regions transition to new development pathways. It is about protecting poorer workers as we make the necessary changes and redirecting the vast sums of state support in subsidies and aid that fossil fuel companies receive towards support for jobs in sustainable industries.

Read more: How Durjoy Rahman’s art foundation is promoting cultural collaboration

LUX: What of the tourism industry in the Global South?
Peter Newell: Many in the Global South are amongst the most exposed to the worst effects of climate change, a problem most who live there played little part in accelerating. For this reason, they are rightly demanding tougher action from the Global North, including reducing emissions from aviation. Small, low-lying and Caribbean island states have rightly been the champions of bolder climate action because their lives depend on it, even where some are heavily dependent on tourism. What you also might see, as we have here in the UK, is a huge boost to local economies as people holiday nearer to home. Aviation may become more sustainable through fuel and engine technology, but that will take time and clearly, for all our sakes, wealthier citizens need to reduce the amount they fly.

LUX: Is it realistic to try to recalibrate the desires and aspirations of the wealthy?
Peter Newell: Climate chaos is not a realistic or attractive prospect, but that is where we are headed. So, carrying on with business as usual is not an option. The investment and political power of the wealthy is vast and can be used to positive effect – to divest from fossil fuels, to support low carbon innovations, to use their profile and influence to back key campaigns and to pay taxes that generate the funds to address these challenges. This clearly isn’t happening on anything like the scale required. The wealthy share the same planet as the rest of us. They are part of the same society. With that comes duties and responsibilities to behave in ways that serve common interests. Planetary survival is one of those. This is a key moment for those with power, wealth and influence to use them in a bold and responsible way to safeguard all of our futures, including their own.

Peter Newell is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex

This article was originally published in the Autumn/Winter 2021 issue.

A&K Philanthropy programmes include the Duuma Wajane Bike Shop in Tanzania, where women repair and resell secondhand bikes to support their community

This month, Geoffrey Kent, founder and CEO of Abercrombie & Kent, reports on his industry’s move towards sustainability and why he thinks responsible tourism is the most authentic way to travel

Geoffrey Kent

Working towards sustainable tourism is the travel industry’s duty, and while big airlines and hotels should lead the way, there are still plenty of ways for individuals to make the right decisions. Being a responsible tourist might sound complicated – or lofty – but it does not need to be either. If 7.7 billion people were to make more sustainable choices, the planet would be better off. Think of the influence one individual can have; I have been very inspired by teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg, whose solitary climate change protest outside the Swedish parliament sparked a youth movement in some 112 countries. It’s often children who are the most aware and passionate. We must live up to their expectations.

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Thankfully, the concept of responsible tourism is catching on. It’s true that notions of sustainability, carbon neutrality, animal welfare and cultural sensitivity haven’t always been in sync with the travel industry, but increasingly we find our customers are asking us to book hotels with eco-friendly practices, to support the local communities they’re visiting and to find carbon-neutral ways of making the journey.

A recent study that we commissioned found that 65% of respondents are likely to be more conscious and careful of their own behaviour when travelling and 50% are likely to stay at hotels that contribute positively to the local environment by engaging in behaviours such as sourcing food locally. We’ve found that if our clients are ‘green’ at home, they tend to take those practices on holiday. At Abercrombie & Kent, we can create itineraries for our clients that are both environmentally conscious and culturally sensitive; we were doing this long before responsible tourism was a thing.

Our experience and network of travel partners have taught us that integrating sustainability into your travel arrangements does not mean sacrificing luxury or comfort. When it comes to five-star luxury with serious eco-credentials, the Six Senses group are leading the way with their programmes: energy conservation, water re-use, waste recycling, responsible purchasing and wildlife protection are all part of their policy. There are small groups and properties also committed to the cause: Sanctuary Retreats for example, The Brando in Tahiti, Caiman Ecolodge in Brazil, Mashpi Lodge in Quito and 1 Hotels. Some of the big hotel chains are at it, too; all the properties in the Fairmont Hotel chain are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.

A&K Philanthropy also supports Hansraj Children’s Home in Udaipur, India

It’s not just on land either, A&K operates an annual cruise to Antarctica with James McClintock, an endowed professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama. He shares adventures from more than 30 years of Antarctic research into ocean acidification and how climate change has impacted the food chain, especially penguin rookeries on the Antarctic Peninsula. A&K has worked with Dr McClintock for the past 12 years to support his research, providing more than $350,000 worth of high-tech equipment, from satellite penguin tags to webcams that allow scientists around the world to monitor penguin rookeries.

Our approach to animal welfare issues is uncompromising. Since the company’s inception, I have championed the concept of ‘shoot with a camera, not with a gun’. Our clients travel to Africa to connect with and celebrate its abundant wildlife, diverse landscapes and thrilling experiences. Elsewhere, we follow vigorous animal welfare guidelines developed by the Association of British Travel Agents in conjunction with the Born Free Foundation, a third-party organisation whose mission it is to protect vulnerable animals from abuse.

Read more: ‘Extremis’ by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar opens at Setareh Gallery

But there’s more to responsible tourism than getting to your destination and back without wreaking havoc on the community you’ve visited. Imagine a trip that offers you the opportunity to make connections through unique local experiences not found in a guidebook. Travel philanthropy can create the most memorable moments of your holiday. Whenever possible, we ask our clients to take part in our Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy (AKP) programme.

We founded AKP in 1982 as a non-profit working with communities on education, health care, conservation and enterprise development, in the areas our clients travel to. Simply put, we work with our neighbours. Anywhere there is a Sanctuary lodge or camp, we establish a nearby project. In Uganda that means Bwindi, located beside Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Camp. In Zambia, near Sanctuary Sussi & Chuma, we work with Nakatindi village. It’s vital that these communities should benefit from any influx of tourism into their ancestral homelands. Anywhere there is a Sanctuary boat operating on a waterway, we establish a project at a place where we regularly undertake shore excursions. For example, in Myanmar that’s at Sin Kyun village where we bring education, clean water and hope to a small remote village on the Irrawaddy river.

AKP has full-time community development professionals on staff around the world. Our philanthropy co-ordinators meet with communities to identify local issues and establish where we can have the greatest impact. We never just have a great year, write a cheque and walk away. At Nakatindi, we heard from tribal elders that their highest concern was mother-to-child HIV transmission, so we established a new maternity ward to provide a clean birth environment. These decisions are made in consultation with our community partners, government officials and departments and sometimes other non-profits in the area.

In 2017 and 2018, our guests gave most significantly to education and healthcare, but contributions come thanks to inspiration, never solicitation. Our female teenage guests are often the drivers. They visit a programme with their families and have the empathy and persistence to inspire their families to be philanthropic. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I’ve had from the parents of teenage girls, who say, “She keeps mentioning the programme we visited and we’ve got to do something about it.”

I believe responsible tourism is a more authentic way to travel. Our guests define luxury as having an authentic experience, an encounter that is true to the place and its traditions, incorporating elements of the past and reflecting local culture. They want to get out and explore, experiencing traditions that are not akin to their own. What can be more responsible than that? Lives are changed when one is immersed in a different culture, and one reaches a new understanding of how life is lived in another part of the world.

Find out more: abercrombiekent.co.uk

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.

Wildlife conservation is essential to the tourism industry in Botswana. Image by Cristy Zinn.

A holiday is not simply a time for rest and relaxation, it’s also about discovery and education, says Abercrombie & Kent Founder Geoffrey Kent in his latest column for LUX. Travellers and the tourism industry have a responsibility to protect the places they visit, and the wildlife

Cultural curiosity inspires travel. How better to understand the impact of a volcano than to visit Pompeii? Seeing Victoria Falls gives you a new understanding of how “the smoke that thunders” fuelled the imagination of the earliest explorers. And to truly comprehend the threat of extinction facing species as diverse as mountain gorilla, tiger, Asian elephant and rhino, you must see them in their natural habitats.

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This thirst for understanding can be harnessed in ways that have the potential to reshape our world. I am lucky enough to have worked hand in hand with visionary leaders to protect wilderness areas that are home to endangered species in order to preserve them for future generations.

In 1985, I met with the soon-to-be President of Uganda, General Museveni. Together we discussed how to protect their mountain gorillas while at the same time benefiting the local Batwa people. Museveni set aside a reserve area, and in return, A&K brought tourists to see them, establishing the first luxury camp. As a result, the gorillas were protected and became the focus of a burgeoning tourism economy. Thirty years later, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a safe haven for more than half of the world’s surviving mountain gorillas.

Tourism has helped to protect the mountain gorillas of Uganda and their natural environment. Image by Mike Arney

Botswana offers a very different safari experience; an unusual combination of desert and delta with an immense concentration of wildlife, especially elephants. It is wild, pristine and expansive. His Excellency the President Seretse Khama Ian Khama made a commitment to develop the country in a sustainable manner — not with “a short-term approach that leaves nothing for the future”. Today some 34 per cent of the adult population works in tourism and wildlife, contributing to the conservation of fragile habitat and threatened species, as well as generating income and employment.

Read more: Hong Kong’s emerging fashion designers

AKP runs conservation projects to protect both the wildlife and local culture. Image by Andy Brunner

To support these kinds of landscape conservation efforts, we established Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy (AKP). Our projects range from wildlife conservation to education and small enterprise initiatives. We save leopards in Sri Lanka by helping cattle farmers protect their herds overnight from predation. We support the Hansraj Children’s Home in India – a residential school that provides equal education opportunities for 100 girls including free education, books, meals, and clothes. We teach women in Botswana to repair and sell bikes, enabling them to feed and educate their children.

AKP has more than 40 projects on all seven continents, offering our guests a unique opportunity to meet local people making a difference through their commitment to protecting their country’s natural and cultural heritage.

I believe the travel and tourism industry should play an essential role in protecting wildlife by integrating sustainable practices into a triple bottom line of environmental, economic and social responsibility.

To learn more about Abercrombie & Kent’s philanthropic efforts and to find out how you can help visit: akphilanthropy.org

In the five years since it opened, The Alpina Gstaad has become an iconic European hotel, featuring award-winning restaurants and spa, spectacular indoor and outdoor pools, a gallery-worthy art collection, and an ambience of relaxed chic that epitomises modern luxury at its best. Here, Eric Favre, its Managing Director, talks about how it’s done as part of our ongoing Luxury Leaders series.

Eric Favre

LUX: The Alpina Gstaad opened into a market, Gstaad, with plenty of choice at the luxury end. Why did it succeed?
Eric Favre: Since it opened in 2012, our property has offered an entirely different experience than Gstaad has seen in the past 100 years. Our owners, architects and consultants had a clear vision of today’s discerning guests, who seek a chic but casual, authentic but refined hideaway in the mountains. So yes, the hardware is still important and we are fortunate to be offering outstanding facilities, but it’s really about meeting the exacting needs of our guests which is at the crux of our success. More and more, hotel and spa clients are looking to connect with a 360 degree lifestyle brand, which offers a compelling combination of art, fashion, wellness and personality. We make it our mission at The Alpina Gstaad to deliver this in a truly exceptional way.

LUX: What were the greatest challenges?
Eric Favre: Finding the right people that are able to transport your philosophy has always been a challenge. Your biggest assets are the people behind your brand and who are willing to go the extra-mile for the satisfaction of your guests. We are fortunate enough to have built a team which goes above and beyond in achieving that task. Another challenge we were facing at the beginning was to build up a loyal clientele given the competition in the area. Today we are thrilled to welcome a strong percentage of returning guests year after year.

The Alpina has the best outdoor pool zone in the Alps

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LUX: What are your clients like?
Eric Favre: Our guests are looking for a sophisticated hideaway to unwind from their busy schedules and responsibilities. It is a wide and international audience that we attract, from high profile celebrities to active couples and families seeking some quality time. What they appreciate is the casual but classy environment at The Alpina Gstaad – not needing to oblige to any dress code, for example. They appreciate the discretion and natural beauty that Gstaad is so famous for.

LUX: Why is Gstaad thriving when many Alpine destinations struggle at the top end?
Eric Favre: I believe that it’s a mix of Gstaad’s world-class events, alpine authenticity, breath-taking landscapes and lively social scene, not only during peak seasons. We keep reinventing ourselves without compromising on the local traditions. The world has always met in Gstaad and I am confident that this will remain a hot-spot for many generations to come.

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LUX: Are you “new luxury” and what does that mean?
Eric Favre: We go beyond what you would expect from a luxury hotel. Yes there is a Michelin starred restaurant and an award-winning Spa, however we are not celebrating the opulence in it. The idea of luxury is much more simpler than it was 20 years ago and today it evolves around re-connecting with yourself, your loved ones and a piece of heaven that we believe is Gstaad.

LUX: What are the most important elements of your offering?
Eric Favre: High-end accommodation, interesting gastronomical experiences, a holistic wellness area and a personalised service from our 170 employees. Moreover, it is also the high level of discretion and Alpine authenticity in a stylish and contemporary setting.

LUX: Is The Alpina Gstaad old money or new money?
Eric Favre: I’d say we are well-invested money.

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LUX: How is running a very exclusive hotel different from the rest of the hospitality industry?
Eric Favre: It is highly labour intensive and there is no room for error.  It is also important to tread carefully the fine line between being exclusive and inclusive – while we wish to offer the utmost in discretion and privacy, it’s important for all of our guests to feel welcome.

One of the hotel’s spacious junior suites

LUX: How important is PR and how do you generate it at the high level?
Eric Favre: We consider PR to be very important, but it needs to be well managed with a strategic approach. We are very selective with the opportunities we pursue and the media we work with, to ensure the results generated are the most effective. It’s important for us to have exposure in the right lifestyle magazines, newspapers and supplements, as well as niche websites, in order to reach our target demographic. Part of this comes from working with the right journalists who have a clear understanding of our offering, and of our audience.

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LUX: Is The Alpina Gstaad a brand, to roll out?
Eric Favre: The beauty of our hotel is that we are completely independent from any international hotel chain.

LUX:If you were a guest in your own hotel, what would you enjoy most about it?
Eric Favre: The ability to be myself in a beautiful environment, which feels like its a million miles from anywhere in the mountains, yet is just minutes from all that Gstaad has to offer.

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