Press Reviews
Press Release: Eco Team Champions Eco and Adventure Tourism with Travelife Partner Status
Creating exceptional experiences that transform guests’ lives is a tall order. Going beyond, blending authentic tailor-made journeys while maintaining a healthy balance of caring for the land, wildlife and people is a fitting ethos for Sri Lanka’s oldest and largest diversified eco adventure company, the Eco Team.
Recognising Eco Team’s unique pioneering spirit and commitment to measurable sustainability, Travelife awarded the company partner status a year ago. As Eco Team celebrates the first anniversary of this unique achievement, it remains the only eco and adventure tourism entity in the country to be accredited as a partner by Travelife.
“At the core of our success is a vision that puts guests, our land and communities at the heart of our business. In our quest for a holistic approach to sustainable tourism the Travelife partner status helps us improve our own practices, while serving to inspire travellers and all those involved in the industry to support responsible and ethical tourism,” said Anuruddha Bandara, CEO, Eco Team.
Travelife is a leading training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies that are committed to sustainability. It provides companies with realistic sustainability goals, tools and solutions to implement positive change within their businesses and supply chains. Travelife is managed by the Travel Association in the UK and by European Centre for Ecological and Agricultural Tourism (ECEAT), ECEAT Projects - a not-for-profit organisation based in The Netherlands.
While striving to help improve standards for responsible travel and sustainable tourism, by obtaining Travelife partner status, Eco Team also ensures stringent standards on various aspects of the business. This mainly includes focusing on providing service delivery to guests with minimal negative impact on the environment and communities. Travelife consistently evaluates all aspects of service provision to ensure standards are met.
Consciously seeking ways to positively impact the environment, the Eco Team has also pioneered intuitive initiatives such as introducing glass bottles at all at all Tented Safari Camps that Eco Team manages, recycling aluminium and metal, paper and cardboard and PET bottles.
While demonstrating meaningful and lasting benefits for the natural environment and communities that surround its operations, Eco Team’s signature blend of natural luxury camps Mahoora and Big Game are included within this accreditation. Mahoora was the first to receive this status in the first quarter of 2017.
Notably, Mahoora and Big Game Camping have remained carbon neutral since early-2012 while Eco Team’s three main sites of Mahoora and Big Game camping located at Wilpattu, Yala and Udawalawe aim to be fully-solar powered by October 2018.
Founded two decades ago, as a pioneering eco and adventure tourism company, Eco Team has today emerged as a specialist, changing the industry landscape tourism through many other niche segments.
Eco Team’s unique brands such as Mahoora.lk, Biggamesafaris.lk, Ahaspokuna.com and Sri Lanka Day Tours together harmoniously provide a signature blend of experiential travel than cannot be matched, its associated
Experiential Journeys (www.exjourneys.com), Beyond Boundaries Global (www.bb.lk), Fly Sri Lanka (www.flysrilanka.lk), Sri Lanka Wilderness Foundation, the company’s CSR arm (www.srilankawilderness.org) are other subsidiary entities that contribute towards redefining the journey.
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Press Release: Eco Team appointed as dealer for world-class Swarovski Binoculars
Eco Team recently signed a partnership with Swarovski Optik to market their world-class product range of binoculars, spotting scopes and accessories.
The world’s best optic brand for nature observation “Swarovski Optik” brings people closer to nature so that they can truly experience the preciousness of the moment and see the unseen.
Speaking on the partnership, Anuruddha Bandara the Founder and Chief Experience Office at Eco Team said, “We are indeed proud to be appointed as the exclusive authorized dealer to market the prestigious Swarovski range. These high-end products are an investment of a lifetime because of their quality and precision.
Swarovski has been trusted by some of the most famous wildlife warriors around the world. Through this partnership Sri Lankans now have the opportunity to purchase Swarovski products at competitive prices and can also get existing equipment serviced.”
The beauty of nature is best experienced firsthand. Sri Lanka despite being a small island is blessed with bio-diversity that ranges from lush green mountains to rain forests, arid dry zones and of course the endless blue ocean that surrounds us. These Eco systems have their own abundance of flora and fauna that have drawn many locals and thousands of tourists from around the globe to the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
With mammals like the majestic Asian elephant, elusive leopard, crocodiles, regal peacocks and more Sri Lanka has evolved in to a nature lover’s haven. Eco Team, one of the pioneers of experience based nature tourism has been in the business of promoting Sri Lanka as a wildlife paradise for more than 17 years.
The company was also instrumental in introducing the concept of tented safaris with their “Mahoora” Tented Campsite, Big Games Camp and the recently opened Ahas Pokuna Bush Walks Camp.
Swarovski’s entire product range will be available in Sri Lanka through Eco Team. As at now there are special offers for the Sri Lanka Wildlife & Nature Protection Society and its members. HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank credit card holders could purchase products on a 5 year no interest easy payment scheme. Eco Team will come up with similar offers for other wildlife and birding societies in Sri Lanka and will look at tie-ups with other local banks for easy payment schemes.
Promoted globally as the “must-have” products for all tour guides, nature-based resorts and adventure tourists, Swarovski Optik is a perfect addition for nature trails, bird watching, hikes, and safaris.
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Press Release: Eco Team Facilitates Running Wild with Bear Grylls
Colombo, Friday 15th September 2017: When it comes to adventure and survival in the wild, no one does it better than Bear Grylls. Amongst all of the adventure experiences that he has created for millions of fans over the world, is an episode of Running Wild that was actually filmed in Sri Lanka. Premier outdoor and eco-tourism solutions provider Eco Team was on hand to make sure the experience of Sri Lanka for the cast and crew was a truly extraordinary one.
Eco Team was the official logistics provider for this episode of Running Wild featuring Mike Horn and Matt Pokora in the Samanala Wewa region. The area which is more than 10km away from human inhabitancy meant that the cast and crew had to trek with all their equipment. The film crew also camped in the great outdoors in close proximity to wild elephants and other animals. To ensure that the smooth operations of filming this episode, Eco Team put together a logistics crew of close to 75 members.
Speaking on this significant feat Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Eco Team Anurudhdha Bandara said, “Efficiency is of high importance in such situations as time and resources are very limited. Food and drinks had to be provided for the crew from a distance of more than 6km away, merely on foot and this is no easy task but Eco Team was equipped with the labour, facilities and equipment needed to complete this challenge. In creating an adventure programme watched by millions around the world, Eco Team had an adventure of our own making sure that the team truly experienced Sri Lanka.”
First broadcasted in the year 2014, featuring famous High School Musical movie star Zac Efron, ‘Running Wild with Bear Grylls’ is a survival skills reality television series. It stars world renown British adventurer, ex SAS and French Foreign Ligonier Bear Grylls who is also known for his television series ‘Man vs. Wild.’ Throughout the many episodes of the show, ‘Running Wild’ has featured celebrities such as former US president Barack Obama, Titanic movie star Kate Winslet and award winning actress Julia Roberts.
During their expedition the episode’s host Mike Horn, the guest celebrity Matt Pokora and the crew consisting of over thirty members were all in Sri Lanka for the production of this episode. Mike Horn is also a world renown adventurer who was dubbed the ‘world’s greatest living man’ by the Telegraph UK, having circumnavigated and trekked around the world from pole to pole and even along the equator – Latitude Zero with no motorised transport. He has also circled the Arctic solo using a kayak, ski and his own feet, expedited the Amazon on his own and scaled mountains over 8,000 metres. The guest celebrity of the episode, Matt Pokora is a famous French singer and songwriter who has also taken up a number of acting roles. Together, they stepped out into the virgin forest of Samanala Wewa Nature Reserve which is located in between Belihuloya and Kaltota regions, mid-way through the dry and wet zone. The area is located in an untouched, remote area where wild elephant sightings are many which increased the risk for the two stars as well as the large production crew. However all’s well that ended well.
Photo Copyrights : Guillaume Mirand
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