Cactus Ethical Policy

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” (Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad)

Cactus is about discovery with respect. At Cactus, we travel in order to meet both local people, others from around the world. That’s why, in everything we do, we believe in using the local language to make that contact with local people possible. We don’t think you need to be fluent, even a handful of phrases makes a big impression. How much better to have a go at speaking to someone than never to have tried at all?

“The great advantage of a hotel is that it's a refuge from home life.” (George Bernard Shaw)

However luxurious it might be to stay in a hotel, they are often accused of milking vital resources from the local community, without returning the profits created to the local population. In some developing countries, hotels literally drain the local communities of water, electricity and food, creating pockets of additional poverty where it otherwise would not exist.

We therefore encourage you, wherever possible to stay in local host families, to support local people directly. This will open up a completely new side of life, exposing you to the real community in which you are living. Just as in the UK, a home may not contain the often expected husband, wife and two children. Single people and older couples often welcome international travellers too, or you might be sharing with others from around the world. Whatever the set up, we urge you to embrace it, learn how they live, and, for the short time of your stay, try to live like them and respect their way of life, however different it may be from your own. You’ll have plenty of chance to catch up on luxury when you get home.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” (Albert Einstein)

In Northern Europe, and the UK in particular, our levels of material wealth are substantially higher than many of the countries you can visit with our organisation. As we don’t believe in you living your holiday in an artificial bubble of creature comforts, we try and prepare you with realistic expectations about what you will encounter when you arrive at your destination. We can offer you our renowned level of customer service, and our honesty when we describe the school and the surroundings, but we will not artificially enhance our descriptions for marketing benefit.

"Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have travelled." (Mohammed)

Air travel is arguably the biggest problem affecting the planet in terms of climate change. Aircraft produce 25% more CO2, per person per mile than car travel. It is released into the atmosphere at high altitude along with other greenhouse gases, where it also causes damage to the ozone layer. The dilemma we face as a company is how to encourage the benefits of language holidays as a means of developing international understanding and mutual respect, whilst respecting the environment, and addressing the issue of global warming.

Where possible, we encourage you to take other means of public transport such as trains and coaches. Where you consider air travel to be a necessity, or where prices are so much in favour of air travel, we strongly urge you to consider offsetting your carbon dioxide emissions by contributing to schemes such as those found at Climate Care www.climatecare.org and The Carbon Neutral Company (previously known as Future Forests) www.carbonneutral.com. Whilst these are only partial solutions, they are much better than doing nothing. The Carbon Neutral Company also has lots of other ways of offsetting your other carbon emissions related to things like car travel and home life.

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." (James Michener)

We encourage you to spend your hard earned money when you get to your language holiday destination but it’s probably best not to flaunt it around too much. Where possible, try and support local bars and restaurants, as opposed to big (Mac)chains. You’ll get a more authentic experience, practise your language and give something back to the community. If in doubt, always leave a tip, as it’s greatly appreciated, and be humble and respectful as you go.