With over 15 years of experience, Viventura is a sustainable worldwide reference tourism operator, with the mission to "strengthen the philosophy of responsibility" among tourists, says Benno Schmidt, responsible for Marketing and CSR.
Leaders in Germany, Schmidt acknowledges that "there is an increasing competition, but I'm glad" because it helps Viventura to improve and requires increasingly to offer a differentiated and quality product that customers value: unique experiences in which tourists inmerse in the local culture of the destination, interacting with its inhabitants and participating in their customs.
Viventura has a team of professionals that combines knowledge from different parts of the world such as Germany, USA, Bolivia, Argentina and France, being this network of people working in an interrelated manner what enables them to adopt an approach to the customer and their needs: personal attention with small groups (maximum 15 people), transparency, environmentally friendly, ... For them is "better to have 100 very responsible travelers than 2.000 less sustainable travelers".
And how do we travel sustainably? Viventura is clear: "we recycle all waste that is in our travels, we use green energy in all our offices, we purchase high efficiency equipment when possible, we offset the carbon footprint of employees and business ..." They also provide tour guides training in ecological responsibility to know how to behave with animals or how to deal with waste, and ensure that their partners have an ethical and respectful behavior to the environment, something they don't find difficult to achieve given that its agreements with them began quite time ago and "they already know what the Viventura wants" explains Schmidt.
And it's "not just rural or ecological tourism". The company has a vision that also includes concern for the environment and customer satisfaction, issues such as the welfare of society or economic development of communities. Thus, Viventura organizes home stays with local families, establishing a rotation system to not always be the same that benefits from the economic impact, and does not work with companies that are based outside the country where the experience is set, nor 5-star hotels that are not local. In the words of Benno Schmidt, it is important "not to give too much power to international companies" and to "control the incomings of local tour operators", fostering long-term agreements that allow employee contracts to also have a longer duration.
This ethical behavior is what allows Viventura position itself as a link between visitors and locals, controlling that international companies do not monopolize the market or destroy the local economy without bringing benefits to its inhabitants, while providing added value to their customers because, for them "the most sustainable from a business view is to offer a quality product."
Visozial
Viventura engages and supports even more to local communities through the Visozial foundation, which aims to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of South America by providing opportunities to develop and enjoy a sustainable future. Specifically, for each trip Viventura invests $30 to Visozial, helping in projects such as reforestation or education programs for children and adults
