What We Stand For
Big 6 Tours & Adventures is one of South Africa’s leading tour operators. Whether you want to explore the streets and sidewalks of Cape Town, meander the majestic Cape Winelands, go whale watching in Walker Bay or head deeper into the bush on a real African Safari – we’ve got an adventure for you!
Our whole team is 100% local and we love it here. We’ve been crafting our tours since 1999 to bring you the safest and most comfortable travel experience in South Africa.
We like a personal approach – and can customise our tours for groups of any size. Our vehicles are ideal for groups of up to 12 travellers. However, because we’re so well established in the South African tourism sector, we can draw on our network of coach companies to source any vehicle for up to 65 passengers.
Come with us on the ultimate African Adventure!
Sustainability and Responsible Tourism
Background
The need for stakeholders in the Tourism industry to become responsible and sustainable operators, necessitated the formalization of principles and procedures within our industry and our company.
- Big6 Tours & Adventures cc recognizes as responsible participants, that we need to adhere to and actively promote responsible tourism practices and align ourselves with companies that shares the same vision and principles
What can tour operators do?
We first need to consider the impact of tourism and the impact travelling has on our planet, but more specifically on our local environment
- How can we reduce the Environmental Impact of our Customers during their visit to South Africa?
- What can we do to Protect the Economy of the Local Communities our customers are visiting?
- What can we do to Maximize the Social Impact that our customers are having on local communities?
- We must consider the Impact of our Operations on the environment. Are there ways to reduce this impact?
What does BIG6 TOURS & ADVENTURES do to address the above?
Environmental Impact of our Customers
Wherever our customers travel they have an environmental impact already, and that is not something we can wish away. In this vein, our tourguides encourage all tourists to consider doing a responsible activity for example doing a cycle tour in the winelands rather than driving a car or visiting a conservation project eg SANCOB or similar.
This will not reduce their carbon footprint to zero, but at the very least will create awareness amongst our customers and our employees alike.
Protect the Economy of the Local Communities
Local communities play an integral part in the tourism chain, especially taking into account the effect of Township Tours in these communities. Therefore, it could be as simple as using local guides and transport services. Otherwise, for the more adventurous travelers, staying in a community owned and staffed accommodation and eating at a restaurant in the community they visit.
Once again, our tourguides are actively made aware of, and can advise on local attractions travelers can make use of.
Maximize the Social Impact
This involves educating our customers about the culture of the place they are visiting and suggesting that they buy locally made products.
It goes without saying that every visitor has the potential to add enormous value to the communities they are visiting, either through monetary contributions or via skills transfers.
In this regard, our tour guides are briefed to sensitize customers to the potential impact they may have by taking positive action. Listening to what our customers say and trying to match needs of the communities they visit.
Impact of our Operations
Our own operations is the one aspect where we have the most control over, in relation to responsible tourism.
In this regard we investigated or have the following in place:
- Tour guides : wherever possible we continue to use local guides and drivers from the communities we are visiting. This has the added advantage that money spent by the customer is ploughed back into the same communities that they are visiting. Furthermore, a guide living within the community knows better than any outsider about safety and security in the area. “Local stories” comes directly from someone living in the area and we found this to be of great importance tour our customers in the past.
- Vehicles: we are continuously evaluating new vehicles with a lower degree of environmental impact. Currently with the vast distances and specific requirements of our clients in terms of luggage space etc, we are not yet able to replace our current fleet with electrically powered vehicles. The infrastructure in South Africa is also not conducive to such a change, eg charging stations not readily available along our main routes.
- Activities: – using local operators in the areas we pass through for anything from adventure activities, boat rides, fishing trips and more. Once again this contributes to the local communities and this is directed from our booking office.
Conclusion:
We recognize that a whole lot more can and should be done to create the perfect tour, with the lowest possible amount of environmental impact. For Big6 this is an ongoing challenge and one we will embrace for the betterment of our local communities.