Temehu's Responsible Travel Policy

 

Temehu Tourism Services is a locally-owned Libyan business, aiming to promote responsible tourism in Libya. We believe the best way to do this is to define the problem, highlight the issues involved, let the people know about them, provide guidelines and recommendations, and campaign for change. We are not claiming to be perfect, but we are serious about this approach to responsible travel and our website clearly reflects our ethos. Documenting Libya's heritage and protecting the environment is of paramount importance to all of us.

The environmental cost of travel and tourism has been a recent worry to a number of concerned organisations and individuals from around the world, to a degree where many caring and responsible travellers were left flabbergasted and confused as to whether they should continue to travel and enjoy the wonders of our planet or just give up the idea altogether in order to free themselves of guilt.

We say that, like everything else humans do, we must learn from past experiences and do all we can to help and improve our conditions. We are all part of one community and we must work as a community. Our ecotourism section of this website will attempt to collect as much information about responsible travel and provide some standard guidelines responsible travellers hopefully can follow in order to continue their travels around the world and enjoy our nature's wonderful planet. Of course, it will help if tourists and travellers become more responsible in their choosing and thereby applying some pressure to force global giants to pay more attention.

 

Economic Responsibility:

Libyan Economy: we are a Libyan tourism company, operating from Libya, and we employ only local services in our programs. All our camping staff, drivers and desert experts are locals who are well acquainted with the Sahara. This means that all operational costs of our tours pour directly into the Libyan economy. Therefore booking your holiday directly with us would make a big difference to all of us in Libya and will help towards developing Libyan tourism.

Wages: our staff and guides are paid well above the national average wages, and are compensated if clients cancel their tours. All our employees and guides are briefed about our responsible travel policy and have pledged to follow our recommendations.

Local Markets: we usually include visits to local markets in Tripoli's Old City, like Souk Atturk, so that our visitors can buy their souvenirs directly from Libyan traders, if they need to. We also visit the local weekly markets in other towns and villages whenever they coincide with our tours to allow our visitors the opportunity to buy directly from market traders and local craftsmen, instead of from larger shops. We also encourage buying directly from the Tuareg nomads during desert tours in order to help them benefit from the influx of tourists. Giving them some gifts, like solar-powered gadgets, or books and toys for their children, will bring great joy and happiness to their lives in the harsh Sahara.

World Wide Exposure of Libyan Crafts: by creating web pages for the various traditional crafts and trades in Libya Temehu.com hopes to publicise local industries and generate an international interest in Libyan culture. The best real example for this is our Tuareg jewellery web page which has generated enquiries from Europe and America and which we have passed on to local Tuareg blacksmiths and traders to follow up.

Environmental Responsibility:

Wildlife: we believe it is our responsibility as a tour operator to inform our visitors about wildlife issues and provide them with as much information as possible in order to help them become aware of the local environment and environmental issues. We provide information and guidelines about wildlife in Libya in our website, and some common tips and guidelines in this section, like: taking fire wood only from dead wood found about and never from living trees or bushes, and not cornering animals, especially snakes, and allowing them enough space to feel safe.

Keep Libya Clean: we believe the biggest environmental concern that Libya should pay attention to is the litter catastrophe. We have decided to come out with the problem, give the Libyan government a helping hand, and bring the issue to the attention of both the Libyan people and companies as well as foreign tourists and visitors, many of whom disregard the issue and discard their garbage without any care. We are currently running a campaign to Keep Libya Clean, to increase awareness of the litter problem, especially plastic and its danger to wildlife and human health, and to educate and encourage both locals and tourists to help towards protecting Libya's rare environment. We have used some strong graphic imagery to put our message across. The campaign is active in our website.

Energy & CO2 Emission: we plan the routes of our itineraries to minimise carbon emissions by using overland transport and by avoiding domestic flights wherever is possible. But sometimes visitors, in order to save time in their short holidays, request internal flights to be included in the itinerary. We also employ energy-saving tips, such as printing only the necessary emails and documents, reducing the use of paper work as much as possible, and making sure our staff turn off computers and all office appliances before leaving the office and leave nothing on stand-by, unless required for safety and/or security reasons.

Feedback: we have a feedback form which our clients and visitors can use to leave their feedbacks. We always encourage our visitors to let us know about any concerns they might have regarding their trip to Libya and report to us any questionable activity they might have noticed during their stay in Libya.

Social Responsibility:

Help towards preserving local culture: we are committed to cataloguing as much of the local culture as possible, by compiling reports and taking photos and publishing our results in our website for the world to see and enjoy. We have devoted a great deal of time and effort to making our website a window to Libya.

Festivals: we have created a web page to cover all the traditional festivals in Libya and to provide some free information about their activities and publicise their events for a wider exposure. We also attend and include visits to these festivals in our itineraries whenever they coincide with our clients visits.

Museums: we have created Libya's first online museum of Libyan museums, to help towards preserving and documenting Libya's heritage, and make it available to all.

Traditional Crafts: we have created special web pages to catalogue Libyan traditional crafts to help preserve many of the fast-disappearing industries, such as tribal jewellery, fetish crafts, pottery, weaving, and leather industries.

Culture: we have included various articles and reports about all aspects of Libyan life and culture in our website, because we believe learning about local cultures helps develop good relationship with the locals who would respect you once they know that you know about their concerns and life and that you respect their culture.

Code of Conduct: we have compiled a full travel guide in which we have highlighted the main things one should and should not do. We point all our visitors to this guide via a link in our replies to their emails so that they are made aware of its existence and thereby of its important content.