Journey Latin America

For more than 40 years, Journey Latin America has provided award-winning group tours, private journeys and tailormade experiences across South America, with responsible travel at the heart of its operations.

AITO – the first travel industry association to incorporate a commitment to sustainable travel and green tourism into its business charter – named Journey Latin America as one of the first operators to win the maximum Sustainable Travel award.

The company is a proud signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and has created a climate action strategy in line with the declaration’s five-step pathway to measure, decarbonise, regenerate, collaborate and finance. Through this, Journey Latin America aims to cut its emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible before 2050.

Championing communities is central to the ethos of the company, which has created a number of specialist experiences and partnerships to support the areas in which it operates. In 2019, the company incorporated a visit to the Pintando Project in Guatemala into its excursion options, helping to revive the local economy and the local textile design for which the region is famous.

Journey Latin America also supports the LATA Foundation, a UK-based charity with projects throughout Latin America. Projects supported include the provision of clean drinking water fountains to schools around Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, free dental care for hundreds of children in the ‘villas’ of Buenos Aires, and the planting of more than 30,000 native trees in the Sacred Valley of Peru by local communities.

The company also works with Water To Go and the Galapagos Conservation Trust, and since 2021 has supported local artisans near the Cotopaxi volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. All travellers with Journey Latin America receive beautiful handwoven travel wallets showcasing the skills and talents of local craftspeople, and providing them with a stable income.

Animal well-being is also central to the company’s offering. As well as supporting the Onçafari Jaguar Project, Journey Latin America maintains a strict animal welfare policy that ensures all animals – whether wild, captive or working – involved in or impacted by its activities have a good state of welfare. This means animals should be healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, able to express natural behaviour and protected from unpleasant feelings such as pain, fear and distress.

Journey Latin America has also been recognised by ethy for its commitment to empowering employees, with the company offering flexible working, a cycle-to-work scheme, climate training and plenty of opportunities to feedback and share ideas for further sustainable practices.