• Travel in a new direction

    Go Barefoot

  • Adventures to awaken the senses

    Explorations of curiosity

  • Create your own moments of discovery

    Travelling is much more than visiting a destination

Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism is tourism development that positively contributes to the destination’s environment, economy and culture whilst benefiting everyone involved including local communities, businesses and tourists.


Go Barefoot, where possible, selects and works with travel enterprises and accommodation providers that actively reduce their environmental impact and/or offer a fresh insight into the destination’s culture and history. At each destination, Go Barefoot supports linked environmental and social initiatives that benefit the wider community.


Go Barefoot ensures that their travel experiences:

  • • Offer enjoyable, flexible, and safe activities;
  • • Provide a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues;
  • • Allow communities to be self-directed in all project stages including participation, planning and management;
  • • Respect social structures and cultural traditions whilst ensuring communities are able to adapt to visitors;
  • • Ensure that cultural and environmental impact is minimised;
  • • Generate long-term economic well-being for local communities;
  • • Tackle social exclusion and local unemployment;
  • • Make positive contributions to the country’s natural and cultural heritage;
  • • Invite support from both private and public sector partners;
  • • Provide competitive access to the global tourism industry.


How can tourism contribute to social development and environmental protection?


Tourism is the world’s largest industry and employer, a sector that is predicted to grow both in volume and impact. Tourism, if managed correctly, has the potential to benefit communities and provide sustainable income.


The 2012 UN Earth Summit and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) identified tourism as a key sector in the transition to achieving sustainable development and a greener economy: channeling investments for energy and water efficiency, climate-change mitigation, waste reduction, the conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage, plus, the strengthening of links with local cultures.