Environmental

Responsible Travel

At Leisure Time Tours we believe responsible travel should provide many benefits, both to communities and the environments we travel in, plus provide real and positive social exchanges. We are committed to providing a more environmentally sustainable future for our beautiful country.

Tourism can help provide employment to rural communities and give powerful economic reasons to preserve natural environments.

Whenever possible we arrange group or small group tours as using a single vehicle to transport multiple visitors is more environmentally friendly than other modes of travel including rental cars or campervans.

The following are the key points in our philosophy:

• We are committed to operating environmentally sustainable tours
• We value all natural resources in the areas in which we operate
• We have a policy of minimal impact and ideally leaving no trace of our activities behind
• We have official accreditation to operate on Department of Conservation land which demonstrates our commitment to the environment and sustainability
• We and our suppliers work to strict environmental guidelines on how we observe wildlife, operate walks to minimise impacts, and deal with waste
• Where possible we recycle everything we use, reducing the amount of waste we produce during tours and our own business activities
• We attempt to maximise our use of electronic communications reducing the need for paper and printing where possible
• We use recycled products and environmentally friendly cleaning products wherever possible
• We commit to ongoing training and development in areas of safety, risk and environmental management
• We provide our visitors with advice and guidelines on how to respect the social, cultural and religious beliefs of local communities.

Tiaki Promise

Tiaki means ‘to care for people and place’ in Te Reo Māori.
The Tiaki Promise is a commitment to care for New Zealand, for now and for future generations. It communicates why caring for New Zealand is important and how to care for Aotearoa while travelling around the country.

Leisure Time Travel supports the Tiaki Promise to care for New Zealand; an initiative that actively encourages international and domestic travellers alike to experience New Zealand in a way that keeps everyone safe, protects our environment, respects our culture and protects the country for future generations.

Qualmark

Leisure Time Tours & Travel have been awarded a sustainability Gold rating from Tourism New Zealand’s quality assurance organisation; Qualmark.

A Gold Qualmark Sustainable Business Award recognises the best sustainable tourism businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences an integral part of everything they do. A Gold Sustainable Tourism Award identifies those businesses leading the way in making the New Zealand tourism industry a world-class sustainable visitor destination.

Planting Native Trees

We work with Trees that Count to promote and assist our guests in donating towards native trees to be planted throughout New Zealand.

Native trees enhance our communities, help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and help protect our threatened biodiversity.
Guests that would like to donate or fund tree planting (from $10 for one tree) can do so via our Tree Registry.

With each donation to our registry, we’re helping to increase biodiversity, create habitat for our native birds and insects, and build stronger and healthier communities. These trees will make a real difference!

We appreciate and thank everyone for their contribution and look forward to sharing future details of regions and communities that you have helped us assist with native trees to plant.

Visitors and Travellers

We encourage our visitors to play their part while travelling, to contribute to our aim to achieve a better sustainable future. Environmental impacts can be minimised with small actions such as:

Water usage:

• Replace your hotel bathroom towels on the towel racks daily, as an indication to housekeeping that you do not wish for your towels to be cleaned that day, saving water and reducing detergent waste.
• Don’t run water unnecessarily. Turn off taps and showers when not using them.

Recycle:

• Place your rubbish waste into the respective waste receptacles where provided to enable the recycling, reuse and reduction of this waste.  If recycling isn’t available please place your rubbish into a waste bin and don’t leave it on the ground.

Conservation:

• While visiting and walking Department of Conservation National Parks keep to the walking tracks provided, this prolongs the presentation and longevity of our native foliage for others to enjoy.
• Do not interfere with any wildlife that you see while out on walks in parks – these are nice to look at, but many species of birdlife and reptilians do stress very easily.

 We use modern coaches that are Euro rated to reduce carbon emissions.

Water Bottles

Leisure Time Group, incorporating Travel Time South Pacific and AgriTravel International, owns and operates its own fleet of motor coaches in New Zealand and water bottles are a prominent request from many coach tour or walking group clients. Historically many tours have operated with a supply of plastic water bottles for client’s comfort and refreshment. While we constantly encourage our passengers to recycle waste, we recognise that there are flaws in the traditional recycling programmes within New Zealand, and that the manufacture of bottled water uses vast quantities of valuable resources such as oil and water itself.

When agents request that their clients have water bottles while travelling on our New Zealand tours we provide only plant-based compostable bottles, rather than single-use plastic water bottles. 
The plant-based, oil-free, water bottles are certified compostable and have a 78% smaller carbon footprint than traditional plastic bottles.
We encourage visitors to reuse their bottle during their New Zealand tour, and we can return them to the provider who has a closed loop collection system for repurposing, recycling or composting.
Our water bottle provider also plants a tree for every box of water bottles sold.
All water is 100% pure New Zealand spring water, bottled at source.

Kiwi Sponsorship

We are a sponsor of the Save the Kiwi program, run as part of the National Kiwi Trust, at Kiwi Encounter, Rainbow Springs, Rotorua. Kiwi Encounter is New Zealand’s largest kiwi facility, for both wild and captive Kiwi. Open to the public it is not just another ‘attraction’ – at Kiwi Encounter what you see is conservation in action with their efforts to stop the extinction of New Zealand’s national icon. Kiwi birds are a unique and endangered species with populations halving approximately every ten years. A conservation programme has been put in place to try and slow the decline of kiwi. The initiative works by artificially incubating kiwi eggs and raising the chicks in captivity until they are 1kg in size and considered able to defend themselves from predators. The chicks are then released back to the wild in the area that the egg was originally lifted from. The programme, along with research and ongoing monitoring of the birds, has helped raise the survival rate of kiwi chicks in the wild from 5% to 60-70%. As part of our commitment to the environment we make regular donations on our guests’ behalf to Kiwi Encounter by way of sponsoring kiwi chicks. We are proud to be a contributor to the conservation of New Zealand’s native bird population, helping to ensure that our rare wildlife will be around for generations to come. For more information https://www.rainbowsprings.co.nz/donate