Responsible Tourism

Our Responsible Tourism Policy

Jus’ Sail believes in the Cape Town Declaration (2002) statement that Responsible Tourism is about making better places to live and better places to visit (with the emphasis in that order). We want to make St Lucia a better place to live and a better place to visit! We love this little island, its friendly people and its beautiful scenery, however, we are not naïve to the harsh realities of life for many people who live here for whom it is far from paradise and we are keenly aware of the pressing environmental issues that beset this small island developing state.

As such, we believe in proactively working towards ensuring that our business is a net positive influence on the St Lucian economy, environment and society. Our goal is to be a responsible corporate citizen who plays an active role in the betterment of the tourism industry of the island that generates positive linkages and knock on effects to the wider economy and society.

Specifically Jus’ Sail is committed to –

1. Offering day sailing charters aboard a traditional locally built wooden vessel to tourists seeking an authentic sailing experience.
2. Ensuring that the skills required for the maintenance and building of these now rare local vessels are sustained locally.
3. Ensuring our guests, whenever possible, are tasting the best of local St Lucian produce, in both drinks and food.
4. Sharing and recommending other local businesses that we believe are showcasing best practice, quality and innovation in their respective fields. Through which we hope to ensure greater economic activity across the island economy. One example of how we work with local persons is through the use of local water taxi’s, rather than use our own dinghy to transport our guests to and from shore we use local boat boys to provide them with business and vital revenue, we only use professional and courteous individuals who also enhance the experience of our guests.
5. Being educational in our sharing of the history and culture of sailing in the West Indies. We always do our best to ensure that we are sufficiently knowledgeable on the history of our vessel, the persons who built her, the environment in which we sail her and the history of the island and its people on which we are based to be sufficiently factual and interesting enough to ensure our guests leave us better informed and more passionate about St Lucia then when they met us.
6. Sharing our skills and expertise with local youth. Every summer we are committed to running a youth training programme, in which we take a number of unemployed local youth, train them to sail, swim, snorkel, get them certified in First Aid and CPR and expose them to positive role models and professionals who are also willing to share their expertise in areas such as customer service, communication skills and personal development. The aim of this programme is ultimately sustainable full time employment for our graduates.
7. Being ecologically responsible, Jus’ Sail undertakes litter clean ups with our youth programme trainees and our staff undertake ad hoc beach clean ups as and when we are in a position to do so. We also have Fish ID kits aboard the boat so that our charter guests can undertake the REEF.org fish survey for uploading to their global database. Where possible we sail instead of motor to minimise our carbon footprint and minimise packaging and imported goods. Our vessel is purposefully fitted with a toilet system that is emptied into the municipal sewer at the marina and not into the ocean to reduce near coastal pollution.
8. We will be active members of tourism industry bodies such as the St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association and play an active role in the lobbying of positive changes to policy and advocacy activities.
9. We understand that we are not perfect and that there are always areas in which we can improve. We are therefore committed to continual improvement in our operations. For instance if we can find feasible ways to use less plastic we will do so (such as now using reusable glass bottles for our fresh coconut water), if we can find the means to increase the environmental education component of our youth training programme we will do so, where possible through joint ventures and partnerships with other organisations and entities with suitable expertise and resources. If we can stimulate linkages with other local businesses delivering excellence in their operations we will do so.