Vegan Travel Asia by Veg Voyages

from VEGWORLD 67 - The Holiday Issue

Holiday Lentil Loaf with All the Trimmings

Vegan Travel Asia by Veg Voyages Wins Three Major Travel Awards

Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages takes home World Travel Award's "Asia's Responsible Tourism Award", "International Travel Award's Best Sustainable Tourism Company in the USA" and "Best Vegan Travel Company in the USA"

Vegan Travel Asia by Veg Voyages made history, becoming the first vegan tour company not only nominated for a World Travel Award in its 28-year history but also to win it, taking home "Asia's Responsible Tourism Award." The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward, and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. The company also just won the International Travel Award’s "Best Sustainable Tourism Company in the USA" and the "Best Vegan Travel Company in the USA" awards. The International Travel Awards was established to honor performance excellence companies, organizations, and individuals in the tourism and travel industry worldwide.

These awards are seen as a landmark win, not only for the company itself but for veganism as a whole, as they shift the travel world's focus to a new kind of tourism that can be more sustainable and easier on the environment. Foundationally, veganism and plant-based eating are almost universally acknowledged to create a ripple effect due to the many ways they reduce the human footprint stemming from animal agriculture's detrimental impact on the environment and communities.

Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages' co-founder Zac Lovas started VegVoyages as part of a mission to bridge cultural gaps throughout the countries the company visits each year. Based mainly out of Jakarta,

By: Karin Olsen / Plant Power Productions

Indonesia, Lovas spends most of the year living out of his suitcase and coordinating vegan cultural immersion group tours and promoting vegan activism in Asia, melding his passions for helping animals, traveling, experiencing local vegan food, and bringing people together. He and fellow founder RK Singh built the company around responsible travel principles, helping the company win the three prestigious awards. Lovas said, "We are proud to be the first vegan tour company nominated in the history of the World Travel Awards and to receive "Asia's Responsible Tourism Award" recognizing how integral a vegan approach is in responsible, sustainable, and eco-friendly travel. "We see these awards as a great opportunity to help raise awareness that traveling vegan is very much a part of traveling responsibly and sustainably," said Lovas, who has lived in Asia for 30 years. "An essential part of sustainable travel is, by definition, to lessen the negative impacts on local environments and community resources. Unfortunately, these topics have long been ignored or discounted in many responsible, sustainable, and ecofriendly travel discussions and checklists, and we hope this award will help change that conversation.

"Our team, and the communities with whom we collaborate, have seen firsthand the negative and exploitive effects animal agriculture is having on our environment and communities. From diminishing and damaged fish populations and coral reefs, and environmental pollution stemming from Asia's rapidly growing factory-farm-practices to zoonotic diseases, severe fresh water and food resource challenges facing ever-growing populations, deforestation, coastal degradation, and labor exploitation that often comes with this larger-scale animal agriculture and fishery industries." Referencing the United Nations World Tourism Organization's statistics, Singh emphasized the importance of vegan travel and its impact on reducing the human footprint. "There are 1.5 billion tourist visits worldwide in 2019, including almost 11 million foreign tourist arrivals in India, 40 million in Thailand, 26 million in Malaysia, and 16 million in Indonesia. On a planet of nearly 8 billion people, with declining food and water resources, we believe traveling vegan is a powerful way to lessen our travel footprint on community and environmental resources."

As a result of witnessing drastic environmental changes in his family's communities in Rajasthan, India, Singh said he knows firsthand how travel and vegan-friendly travel are inextricably linked. "This vegan-friendly approach isn't just a conversation for us; it's what we do. Responsible travel means "reducing the impact on the local environment, lessening the impact on food and water resources, and ensuring the growing tourism numbers is sustainable for communities, their local resources, and their environment."

In an immersive approach that benefits both the community and guests, the company collaborates with local citizens to complement the culture, of which food is a crucial element. Fortunately, plant-based dishes have traditionally been a significant part of daily meals and diets in the company's toured Asian countries, and locals prepare plantbased meals for guests. And, for Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages, traveling vegan is not just limited to serving guests vegan meals. The company also avoids all forms of animal exploitation, including no animal rides, no zoos, no "selfie ops" with animals, and no animal shows. Additionally, by collaborating with frontline conservationists and wildlife protection organizations, their tours ensure guests visiting national parks and protected marine life reserves approach the experience in a meaningful and educational way and with a minimal footprint. Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages is a team of five friends from four different countries and four different faiths who came together to combine their diverse backgrounds and mutual passion for animals, people, cultures, travel, and storytelling. They create and organize cultural tours focused on bridging cultural gaps through cultural immersion and local interaction with local communities while enjoying 100 percent local vegan food. Starting with three trips to India 17 years ago, they now organize 27 yearly trips to nine different countries, including Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and soon Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.

Lovas also runs the VegVoyage Foundation, the tour company's 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. The organization teams up with local vegan activists to prepare and provide vegan meals to a wide-ranging population, including day laborers and their families from villages in Nepal (and India), the homeless, cancer patients in the hospital, and their family members staying in small shelters nearby. The team also provides daily vegan meals for dogs, cows, and monkeys living on the city streets. "Coming up with vegan dog food required some innovation," Lovas said for a previous VEGWORLD article. "After searching online, the team found dog food recipes with locally available ingredients and began preparing and delivering meals daily." The effort serendipitously resulted in the recipe being shared across the country and within the activist community, inspiring other rescue programs to provide vegan food to dogs on the street and at some of the city's animal shelters.

VegVoyages Foundation and Vegan Travel Asia are also sponsoring the inaugural Himalayan Vegan Festival and The World Vegan Organization's 7th Annual International Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal April 15-17, 2022, and in Thimphu, Bhutan April 18 – 20, 2022. VEGWORLD Magazine is the worldwide media sponsor. The festival will feature more than 100 international vegan speakers, delegates, and celebrities, plus more than 75 exhibitors.

Attractions will include:

• A vegan food and product bazaar • Live bands, music, and dance • International and local vegan chefs • Film screenings, cooking classes • Health, fitness, and fashion workshops Attendees can also participate in a vegan challenge, attend animal education classes, plus kids have their own activity corner. There is no cost to attend.

Courtesy of VegVoyages, VEGWORLD will also give away two pairs of all-inclusive Patron's Pass and Package for the festival, including three days/three nights in Kathmandu.

To learn more about Vegan Travel Asia by VegVoyages and their commitment to responsible travel, visit their website.

& The World Vegan Organisation’s 7th Annual International Conference

The biggest PLANT-BASED EVENT ever in the HIMALAYA!

Organized by

World Vegan Organisation Nepal

Organizing Partner

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