About Us
SSS Travel is a Mongolian owned company that has been involved in tourism since 1997. It has run tours for groups, volunteers, scouts and independent tourists. When we started we aimed to cater for youth travelers, (mainly scouts) however since then it has expanded into standard and educational tourism.
SSS Travel aims to be a responsible tourist company by practicing, developing and supporting as many responsible tourism projects as possible. We believe that by benefiting society, in a direct and honest way we then differentiate ourselves from other tourism companies and give the consumer another reason to choose us. As for companies that wish to partner us, then they too can be seen to be as they are being socially responsible.
SSS Travel's Mission Statement
SSS Travel aims to provide visitors with something that is educational and reflective of the real situation in Mongolia.
Our Tours attempt to show Mongolia’s natural beauty, wildness, people and culture as they really are. We feel that our tours should not ignore that Mongolia is experiencing many problems; instead we openly acknowledge these problems and further more try to use our tours to help alleviate them. This means that SSS Travels offers more than just tourism or even educational tourism but it attempts to help to improve the situation of Mongolia in a small way.
We believe that our success will come from being honest and socially responsible. This means providing as many tour options as possible that really benefit Mongolians and by acting in a proper way, whether in business or on tours.
Our most important resource is our staff, which must be professional and reliable. They should also be encouraged to improve their knowledge and skills we believe will lead to our company improving.
We try to offer authentic Mongolian experiences to people who wish travel with us. SSS Travel is not a tourist company for the mass tourist but for people who want to learn about Mongolia and even people who want to use their experience to help Mongolians.
Why Mongolia needs responsible Tourists
History of Tourism in Mongolia
As you would be well aware, Mongolia underwent the change in politics in the early 1990s. Under communist rule the country had the one tourism company however with the change to democracy came an opening up of tourism. Although the industry was and still is tiny on a global scale, many saw it as a way of increasing Mongolia's exports (tourism brings in foreign currency thus it is an export), and with few export options (mining and agriculture being the other major options) it was welcomed by many Mongolians.
Current Situation
Mongolia's knowledge of tourism has markedly increased over the last decade along with tourism facilities and service. However the benefits received by tourism have been mixed. A heavy reliance on foreign investment and the need to import so much of what tourists consume has caused a lot of money that could have been raised by tourism to leave the country. Many communities that tourism visits have very little investment in the industry, which exacerbates the problem. At SSS Travel we believe that Tourism can help to improve Mongolia, not only is it one of only a few export options that our country has but it can give our fellow country men and women a chance to diversify their income or provide a reason to protect our natural resources. However we feel that it is not good enough to just think that tourism equals an improving Mongolia, everybody in the industry should be thinking; how can we keep the money in the economy and how can we share the benefits.
SSS Travel and Responsible Tourism
If a company is practicing or supporting eco- tourism and/or community tourism then chances are, they are a Responsible tourist company. At SSS Travel we aim to be as responsible as possible and encourage our tourists to do the same. This is why we produce as many options as possible to out travelers that benefit the right people and places in Mongolia, in an appropriate way.
Currently we are finding it hard to provide responsible tourism options to all destinations, however we are trying. But this raises the question if we live here speak the language etc and we cannot find all alternatives, then what hope has the traveler got?
At SSS Travel we have extended our commitment to responsible tourism by using educational tourism to support more than environmental projects and community tourism but we now support development and aid projects. We do this by paying an entrance fee to the projects and providing an avenue for tourists to donate to them. On top of this we are very conscious of conducting our tours in a proper way so that negative impacts on the local community and environment are minimized.
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