Benefits of Hotel-Based Tourism

There are many benefits to this new model of tourism:

• Hotel-based tourism supports and stimulated local businesses and services allowing Galapagueños an overall improved quality of life.
• Tourists who stay at hotels experience and help the many small businesses that provide day-trip opportunities, lodging and restaurants. The local population of Galapagos is economically stimulated by tourists who stay at locally-owned hotels rather than on board a cruise ship.
• Tourists benefit from acting within local communities, walking through the neighborhoods and immersing themselves in Galapagos culture.
• Tourists can experience our rich nightlife and music; on cruise ships guests never get to experience this side of Galapagos.
• Smaller, less environmentally impacting boats take tourists on day trips to visitor sites or for snorkeling and scuba diving.
• Guests rejuvenate after a day of exploration in a beautiful hotel room or lounging on hammocks and in our gardens filled with endemic and indigenous flora.
• Guests are unbound by regimented ship-based schedules and itineraries which require that passengers be on and off each visitor site within a set time frame. With a hotel-based tour, visitors set the pace, select their activities, and create a customized schedule based on their personal interests.
• There is no group to keep up with. On a boat with 16-100 passengers, there is one pace. If you like to run ahead, you can’t because you have to stay with the group. If you like a relaxing amble or stopping for photo ops, on a land-based tour you can do so without imposing on the time of others.
• In general you will be able to take more time in any given location than if you had a daily boat schedule.
• U.S. summer school break, the best time for family vacation, is “winter” in Galapagos when the weather is just beautiful but the waters are rough and cold. Hotel-based excursions avoid problems that come with rougher seas.
• Most important, your trip is tailored to your interests and your areas of emphasis and not those mandated by others.
• There are considerable environmental benefits of the land-based model as well including less pollution, better recycling opportunities, the use of wind-driving and solar power, purified water, less interference with marine life and more.