What is a Kepri trip?

While visiting beautiful landscapes via outdoor activities is a crucial aspect of all of our trips, we feel our differentiating factor is how we are able to create platforms for cultural exchanges. Being able to meet the local population, without necessarily a commercial context, allows the exchange to be sincere and authentic.

Because of our Creative Organizer's (COs) we are put into direct contact with their friends, family and other contacts over the course of the trip. Their generosity to share their time and energy with the group is an aspect of the trip that will mark the traveler. We very often forget beautiful photos that we took on our past trips, but rare is it that we forget the relationships we built with the people that touched us.

Examples of cultural exchange workshops: in Peru we can visit a small village in the North where we will spend the day with local fishermen to build traditional fishing vessels that we then test in the Pacific Ocean. Having fishermen (who do not speak anything other than Spanish and do not work as tour guides) take the time to show us their heritage makes this experience true to our ecotourism philosophy.

The environment is what triggered Kepri (ecotours). Karim Haggar and Anthony Chamy founded the company because they felt they had to do something about the degradation of the natural environment in their country of origin. They thought ecotourism could be a very promising solution.

We have decided to develop a system to measure the impact of our trips on three levels: (1) the natural environment, (2) the local culture, and (3) the local economy.

We do not limit the impact measurement to CO2 emissions but we go further to understand how the trips we design benefit the local communities not only on the economical level but also on the cultural and environmental levels. We influence and follow the evolution of their ecotourism practices.

These ecotourism (or sustainable tourism) practices that we strongly foster and diffuse emphasize healthy outdoor activities and most importantly cultural activities that empower the local communities, that enable them to preserve their beautiful traditions and at the same time that help them progress and evolve.

We strive to build long term and trust relationships with our local partners around the globe and we work hard to continually bring them new ideas that enable them to improve their ecotourism practices. By paying them directly, our influence is direct and so our responsibility is greater. By encouraging suppliers that have good environment practices we can reinforce the green values that we share and validate the need for ecotourism in the industry.

Examples of this are the hotels/ecolodges we choose to work with, since everything, from the construction materials, to the waste management system will determine our interest in working with them.

The kepri team is working on a tool for simulating the ecological lifecycle of all trips and take into account activities that are directly or indirectly related to the trip's production.

Our trips are conceived and accompanied by Creative Organizers (we call them CO's) whose special quality is unique to kepri. They are multicultural in that although they now live in North America while they come from the destination being visited. This allows us to discover many hidden treasures since our COs have the key contacts (families and friends) and know the country inside and out.

Our CO's bring much more value to a trip than a traditional guide. It is because of their passion for sharing their intricate knowledge of the cultural heritage that they can make the key judgments on what to do and what not to do to. Thus, ensuring a trip like no other yet that would not be at all the same without the COs' presence.

Since personal contact with the local culture is what makes the exchange authentic, our COs give us the opportunity to be received like locals. Their contacts make the cultural exchange possible: we meet people that are not trying to sell us anything, but rather, live and work in different industries and are open to communicating and sharing their time with ours.

As far as their professional backgrounds, our CO's work and study in a variety of industries, making their contribution to the group that much more important. Why travel with a tour guide when you can travel with a PhD student, an entrepreneur, or an engineer?!

Typically, the tourism industry's structure is based on an older model filled with intermediaries. At kepri, the way in which we deal with our local suppliers is simple: we directly contact each and every person we work with, ensuring not only that we do not pay unnecessary intermediaries but also having the full control over the quality of the services delivered. Thus, when a Bedouin in the Sahara desert welcomes us in his charming little oasis hotel, it is the result of our direct reservation.

Our prices are competitive because we don't spend too much time at typical tourist attractions and because we don't get tour operators to do all the work for us. By minimizing the number of transactions needed for our logistics we end up being able to pay more to our deserving suppliers while increasing the cost savings that we pass on to you.

The reason why we are able to do so is a result of our carefully selected Creative Organizers. Our COs know the country being visited inside and out, and have all the personal contacts needed to make their own itineraries and deal with the suppliers directly, this is what makes our customized trips affordable. (see more on COs)

kepri combines cultural, physical and outdoor activities in a sustainable development perspective. The trips are intense and relaxing, as well as extremely enriching and most importantly very well balanced.

The balance comes from the combination of outdoor activities discovering the beautiful landscapes the destinations have to offer and meeting locals to learn about their culture and traditions. Since we are on vacation, we will of course also take the time to relax and enjoy ourselves. Finally, we'll take a little bit of time to give of ourselves by visiting a sustainable development project to learn about the different ways we can have a positive impact on the country we are visiting.

The sites visited are selected among a variety of possible visits, however, we tend to stay away from many of the standard mass-tourism activities since our philosophy is to go where few people have gone and follow the road less traveled!

Some places are a must-see, however, there are also many not so well known locations that we feel make our trips much more exciting. Therefore, we will balance the visits between popular sites and those that are often hidden treasures.

For example, when traveling to Egypt, we will, of course go visit the Pyramids of Giza and the famous Cairo Museum. However, we will spend less than 3 days in Cairo out of a 15-day itinerary. While in Cairo we will of course get to see the cute little restaurants that are clean, typical and serve excellent food, yet are known only by locals. The rest of the time is spent exploring the wonderful deserts, oases, deserted beaches, small villages and their people... selected for their natural and genuine beauty.

Like on the Kepri Trip Model below, Cultural Exchange and Positive Impact are in the center of the Kepri business model and actions:

Positive impact through development projects: In 2007, Kepri decided to innovate and invest itself fully in the sustainable development of all current and eventual countries visited during the trips. These sustainable development projects are mainly (1) community development projects and (2) environmental protection projects.

Here is an example:

The trips to Senegal help finance the construction of typical huts in the heart of the village of Andiel, where the kepri team and travelers will have the opportunity to stay when we pass by this region. We will be lucky enough to have the Bedik villagers allow us to integrate ourselves into the everyday life of their families. This unique experience, although an activity with a positive impact, will definitely be a trip highlight!

The huts we are financing are entirely constructed by the villagers themselves, using local materials allowing for the conservation of traditional construction techniques. Furthermore, the villagers will be able to rent out the huts to other travelers when we are not there and reap 100% of the benefits, which they can then use to finance other needs such as purchasing medicine for the village mini clinic or for school supplies.