Sustainable Tourism

our mission

SATOYAMA EXPERIENCE, as a tour operator, accommodation provider and travel agency, contributes to sustainable tourism and the development of a sustainable society through its business.
We base all our actions on our sustainability policy, collaborate with all our stakeholders and do our best to enhance a sustainable society.
We aim to positively impact the areas where we offer our tours, facilitating and encouraging the continuation of their unique culture and biodiversity through introducing these to our guests. We believe our actions enhance the attractiveness of these areas to both visitors and residents.

Sustainable Tourism refers to sustainable practices in and by the tourism industry. It is an aspiration to acknowledge all impacts of tourism, both positive and negative. It aims to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive ones. Negative impacts to a destination include economic leakage, damage to the natural environment and overcrowding to name a few. Positive impacts to a destination include job creation, cultural heritage preservation and interpretation, wildlife preservation landscape restoration, and more.

To achieve Sustainable tourism, we cannot do this on our own but the support from our guest is necessary. As a responsible traveler is it important to choose sustainable accommodations and tour operaters.

We are making a genuine effort to minimize the impact on the planet. By joining our tour or staying in our accommodation, guests can contribute to small community and sustainability.If you want to travel ecofriendly, this is the right place to visit.

In August 2023, we got awarded as “Travelife Partner”* and now recognized as sustainable tourism business. From tour to accommodation, we are always considering how we can be more sustainable.

*Travelife is a certification system, dedicated to achieving sustainable practices within the tourism industry. It provides companies with realistic sustainability goals, tools and solutions to implement positive change within their businesses and supply chains. Travelife is managed by ABTA – The Travel Association in the UK – and by ECEAT Projects – a not-for-profit organisation based in The Netherlands.
“The Travelife Partner award is a recognition of our commitment towards social and environmental sustainability. We comply with more than 100 criteria related to sustainability management, office operations, working with suppliers and customer communication. We are working towards further improvements aiming to eventually reach the Travelife Certified stage.”

SATOYAMA STAY

The main purpose of our accommodation (SATOYAMA STAY) is to protect the traditional townscape of Furukawa and provide an opportunity for local craftsman to implement traditional carpentry methods. From the woods we used for our building and interiors to small things we have, we used local product as much as possible in our accommodation.

For our daily operation we follow sustainable policy. For some examples of our action, we have listed below

We do not provide amenities at our accommodation. We ask our guest to bring their own. Only few plastic goods are placed in our room.
We do not provide plastic bottle. Instead, we installed a water server at the front desk for you to fill up your water bottle.
Our building and most of our furnishers are made from local wood.
We do not sell products that are imported from other regions.
Food and drinks served in our accommodation are using locally grown product to decrease food milage as much as possible.
We have switched most of our documents to online in order to save paper

Tours

Our tours are mainly walking and cycling tours where we do not emit any CO2 for transportation. For more actions for sustainability,

From 2021, we have stopped using paper forms and switched to online in order to reduce paper use.
Stopped providing plastic bottle and instead we installed a water server at the front desk.
We use composable tea bags for tea provided during tour

Contribution to our community

To protect valuable local resources in our community, we have held an event for taking care of old traditional houses in our town. Our guide visit schools to share knowledge and culture about our region, things we can be proud of. More to this, we volunteer in many of the events in our region to contribute to the community.

our mission