Telling the African Story
Sustainable Tourism Agenda
As a responsible corporate citizen, giving back to the communities where we carry out business is an integral part of our overall strategy. Our aim is to ‘give back’ in a structured and sustainable manner that ensures the greatest possible impact on our beneficiaries. To achieve this, we periodically carry out need-gap analysis in target communities to be able to accurately determine areas where our support is most needed. This enables us to deliver CSR projects that are relevant and impactful. In line with the principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA is committed to the improvement of the socioeconomic condition of the communities where we do business. Our social initiatives are geared towards eradicating extreme poverty, encouraging skills development and capacity building, employment creation, and supporting government’s efforts at achieving inclusive growth and development.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
We are committed to the actualization of the SDGs. We understand that government alone cannot shoulder the huge responsibility this entails. We have therefore built the actualization of the SDGs into our business goals and strategies.
Our Commitment
As a responsible Tour and Travel services institution, ensuring the sustainability of the physical environment is important to us. Through our value chain, we actively leverage opportunities to demonstrate ‘green’ leadership and reduce negative impacts on the environment. We remain committed to providing quality services and fair pricing to our customers, insisting on environmentally and socially responsible practices in our supply chain, while also ensuring that our people work in a safe and conducive environment. Our vision is to build a lasting corporate structure that would outlive this and future generations through sustainable business practices and efficient deployment of resources.
We are fully committed to the actualization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and the Principles for Responsible Tourism of the United Nations Environment Programme – Tourism Initiative (UNEP TI). We also committed to the Uganda Tourism Board Regulations and Uganda Wild Life Authority, among others. We will continue to ensure that our products, services, business investments and corporate social responsibility initiatives align with local and global objectives to drive inclusive growth and development, create jobs, eradicate extreme poverty, empower women, enhance financial inclusion and promote Sustainable Tourism.
Our Footprints
Our aim is to reduce our potential negative social, economic and environmental footprints while enhancing the overall value we create as a leading brand. To this end, we are committed to adopting global best practices in our business operations and imbibing corporate policies and procedures that are environmentally friendly.
Economic
As a responsible corporate citizen, we are dedicated to creating economic value for all our stakeholders, government and the larger society. We will continue to leverage economy of scale, resource efficiency, well-trained workforce and state-of-the-art technology to drive innovation in Tourism in Uganda and in the region.
Social
Our people are our most valuable assets. Our business strategy is anchored on People, Technology and Service. We recognize our employees as vital to our long-term performance and business continuity.
At LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA, excellent service delivery is a key priority. And we understand that this can only be delivered by a workforce that is highly trained, skilled, competent and motivated to attain their full potential. This is why we celebrate hard work, reward excellence, and train up to 90 percent of our workforce annually.
LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA is an equal opportunity employer. We abhor all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, colour, tribe or ethnicity, religion, marital status or physical challenges. Our Human Rights Policy clearly defines these standards and lays down strict penalties for violations.
In accordance with international labour standards as spelt out in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Forced Labor Convention (2014), LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA does not condone the use of forced or compulsory labor in its operations or in its dealings with third parties. We promote gender equality and provide equal opportunities for all employees to thrive.
We are committed to responsible products delivery, mutually beneficial relationship with our host communities, and compliance with all laws and regulations governing our business activities.
We will continue to leverage our position as a leading African brand to support efforts towards eradicating extreme poverty, creating new jobs and ensuring tourism inclusive growth and development.
We will continue to support the economic growth and development agenda of government. We remain committed to driving sustainable growth in agro-tourism, trade and commerce, transport, among other sectors of the economy. We also are committed to using our tourism products to support SME growth and boost entrepreneurship.
Environment
We are committed to the global fight against greenhouse gas emission, climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, resource depletion, and all other forms of practices that degrade the quality of our physical environment. We are also committed to the environmental and social standards of the Equator Principles, the United Nations Environment Programme Tourism Initiative (UNEP TI), the UN Global Compact.
(UNGC), the Uganda Wildlife Authority among other global codes that promote responsible business practices and the wellbeing of the environment.
For us, achieving a balanced scorecard means integrating environmental and social considerations into our measurement scale, and looking beyond just profit. It also entails imbibing global best practices in our business policies and practices and ensuring that our value system is propelled by a commitment to the triple-bottom line – people, planet and profit. We will continue to promote policies and practices that would reduce our potential negative environmental footprints while enhancing our positive environmental impact
Partnerships and Collaborations
As a signatory to the Uganda Wild Life Authority, Uganda Tourism Board, and Uganda Tourism Associations among other local and international sustainable business principles, we understand the critical importance of collaboration in the actualization of sustainable development. We will continue to foster local and international partnerships towards accelerated growth and penetration of sustainable practices in the tourism services sector. We are committed to playing our role in ensuring the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of our world.
Engagement Channels
Using a variety of open and participatory engagement channels such as surveys, one-on-one meetings, summits, conference calls, dedicated contact canters, meetings, bulletins, periodic reports, among others, we effectively engage our stakeholders, feeling their pulse at every point in time and ensuring that we include their feedback in our business decisions. The issues raised during these engagements and our progress in addressing them are reported each year, in our annual Sustainability Report.
Sustainability Reporting
As an emerging global tour brand, we understand the importance of transparency and full disclosure of our economic, social and environmental impact. The Varsity Safaris complies with the Uganda Wild Life. In addition, we publish a standalone report on our sustainability performance.
Technology of Tomorrow
At LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA, we see technology as an enabler and as a generator of new opportunities. We are forward-thinking, benchmarking trends in technology to shape our future coupled with our practical delivery on a highly automated platform that makes us unique. As the country’s Information Technology (IT) infrastructure improves, our leading edge in IT keeps us well positioned in the global tourism community to sustain our offering of exceptional E-booking services and Virtual Tours. This is complemented by our risk management system that creates a blend that not only grows our customers’ businesses but also strengthens them. Our management system stresses rational procedures and transparency.
Accuracy
Our success hinges on satisfying our customers and helping them unlock the real value of their businesses. The challenge is always to be better than anyone else; better at creating real, lasting value for customers. For example, one of LIKANA SAFARIS UGANDA’s traditional lines of business is International and Local Tourism. Our knowledge of the marketplace and creativity has propelled us to the forefront of trading activities in designing a wide our products to position well in the market, with resultant competitive advantage and tremendous value. The comapny’s leadership assets are manifested in the ability of our staff/managers to combine knowledge and experience to create value for all customers. That is, to combine vision with precision; using creativity, skills and ideas to expand their business and profitability.
Caring
Our support in all these projects is propelled by a strong commitment to the common good of the society. Managing the brand asset is key to our strategy and culture. Service excellence, superior and top notch quality, trust, speed, ideas, efficiency among others comprise the set of reputation capital that we leave in the minds of our customers. People, talent, proprietary knowledge, brand, leadership, integrity and relationship all fit together to increase our competitive advantage as a powerhouse for value creation.