Tushar Agarwal, Co-Founder, Adventures Overland
Celebrating World Tourism Day and the World Tourism Day 2022 theme ‘Rethinking Tourism, Adventures Overland has reaffirmed its support for ‘Responsible Travel.’ Adventures Overland’s initiative is geared toward not only offsetting the carbon footprint of its trips but also empowering all eco-travelers in supporting the idea of conscious travel for the direct benefit of wildlife, natural habitat, and local communities through a Carbon Emissions Calculator.
In line with the ‘Responsible Travel’ philosophy, Adventures Overland’s flagship trip – Road to London currently undertaking its fourth trip, is also offsetting its Carbon Footprint. The trip is one of the world’s most sought-after cross-border road trips. It is currently taking avid road trippers on a 15000 km cross-border journey from Iran to London via Turkey, Eastern Europe, Baltics, and Scandinavia, including Nord Kapp, the northernmost tip of Norway and mainland Europe. The convoy comprises 10 cars and 25 travel enthusiasts making this epic journey via 20 countries. The tour started on the eve of Indian Independence Day and will culminate in London on October 7, 2022.
Commenting on the occasion, Tushar Agarwal, Co-Founder, Adventures Overland said, “We resonate with the theme of ‘Rethinking Tourism’ not only at the responsible travel philosophy level but also in terms of how we imagine our trips. As our world becomes smaller and resources become rarer, it is prudent to take corrective action. Being a travel company, our tourism brand has far more purpose than simply going to a destination. We are excited to play a significant role in reducing the carbon footprint of all travelers with our initiative and pledge to offset all the CO2 emissions of the crew cars on the trips. We will also encourage our clients to offset their emissions. At Adventures Overland, we are also exploring options of organising tours with Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Norway and are hopeful that these tours will become a regular feature with us. We wish all passionate travelers a Happy World Tourism Day and look forward to having them join us in some of our forthcoming trips.”
Any traveler can use the CO2 Emission Calculator feature available on the Responsible Travel section of the ‘Adventures Overland website and reach the CO2 emissions figures of their trip based on parameters such as the type of vehicle, distance, and the fuel used by the car.
Once calculated, the calculator shares information on the number of trees that must be planted to offset the trip’s emissions. The traveler gets an option to directly make payment to Adventures Overland’s NGO partner to get the trees planted.
Green Himalayas, a joint venture and a shared passion between two NGOs – Go Green Go Organic (Go Green) and Golden mile Learning is a key contributor in planting trees to the destinations of the tours. Over the years, Go Green has planted close to 1 million trees across Ladakh. An example project directly impacted by Adventures’ carbon offset initiative is The Phobrang Project: ‘A Billion Trees across the Himalayas.’
Adventures Overland has been aligned with the ‘Rethinking Tourism’ philosophy with the kind of eclectic tours that it organizes, such as the ongoing Road to London. In the last decade, senior citizens, solo female travelers, couples, families with children, and differently-abled individuals, have all joined Adventures Overland or engaged its help in undertaking self-drive expeditions around the world. Cross-border trips are one of the unique product categories offered by Adventures Overland. In 2023 the company plans to run a Bus to London from Delhi.
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