Your invitation to join the Kodama traveller community

Why build a responsible travel community?

Travel is a privilege: no matter how fast or slow one travels, or how far or near one journeys, travel inherently signals mobility and disposable income. This privilege comes with responsibilities. The root of Kodama's founding philosophy is that exploring the world should not come at the expense of wildlife, the environment, and the local communities. But often, the burden of doing the right things falls on travellers - we expect travellers to sieve through all the information and noise to make the right decision. The truth is, no one individual or organisation can know it all, especially for destinations they have yet to visit.

We've always wanted to build a responsible travel community and to start the dialogue. I've often heard people say they've done a lot of research before participating in an activity, only to find out on the spot that it was not as ethical as advertised. So, to borrow the principle of citizen science, we want to make responsible travel easier by creating a community where we can come together to share, learn, and inspire. We'll start this as an Instagram channel and see where this seedling will take us.

What is this space for?

The channel is not a one-way broadcast, but a place for dialogue and organising. Given its two-way nature, there will be some community guidelines as set out in the last section of this post.

Here, you'll be the first to hear about our latest routes, guides, offers, and success stories. We also hope it can become a place where everyone can feel safe sharing best practices, discussing experiences you may not be too sure about, and sharing establishments to avoid. Together, we can spotlight responsible businesses and discourage harmful or unethical practices.

We invite you to join us, share your experiences, ask questions, and help us shape a travel future that celebrates this planet and all its inhabitants.

Community rules

To ensure everyone has a positive experience, we've set out some guidelines:

1. Be Respectful: treat all members with kindness and respect. Personal attacks, harassment, or offensive language will not be tolerated.
2. Stay on Topic: posts and comments should be relevant to ethical travel, wildlife conservation, or responsible tourism.
3. No Spam or Promotions: avoid self-promotion, unsolicited advertisements, or irrelevant links. We reserve the right to report any scam activities that happen within the channel.
4. English Only: to keep the community inclusive, please post in English.
5. Protect Wildlife and Communities: do not share content that encourages harmful or unethical interactions with animals or local communities.
6. Share Knowledge, Not Rumours: if discussing establishments, tours, or destinations to avoid, stick to factual experiences and verified information.
7. Respect Privacy: do not share personal information of other members without consent. Do not share any financial information.
8. Report Issues: If you see content that violates these guidelines, please report it to the channel admin.