In 2018, the Municipality of Quito and its office in charge of tourism in ECUADOR “QUITO TURISMO”, launched the Sustainability Programme “DISTINCTIVE Q – QUALITY TOURISM”.

This programme seeks to reward businesses that put in place good sustainable tourism management practices and quality services, in the areas of accommodation, catering and tourism operations.

We received the invitation to take part in this major project with great enthusiasm, and immediately began work on all aspects of corporate social responsibility, including administrative management, infrastructure, equipment, quality of services, passenger service and many others.

All our practices and processes were examined to determine what changes needed to be made in order to comply with the guidelines set out in the programme.

We relied on ongoing technical assistance from the QUITO TOURISM office to understand and assimilate each of the regulations to be complied with in terms of sustainable tourism. This has not been easy, and we have had to integrate, evaluate and reconsider many of our objectives as a company.

The difficult years of the pandemic and the countless ups and downs we had to go through only stopped us temporarily.

The effects on the tourism industry were very negative, but our passion for organising trips and our desire to continue to promote the different Latin American countries where we are present were more powerful and helped us to overcome all the hardships.

The result of all this hard work was the award of the Distinctive ‘Q’, of which we are very proud.

It’s a professional and personal commitment for all of us.

A distinction that reinforces the principles and values that gave birth to our company: promoting tourism that respects the ecosystem, with minimal impact on the environment and local culture, generating jobs and income for the local population while reducing the carbon footprint, electricity and water consumption, working to conserve natural resources and respecting good social practice.

Leonardo Castillo

Country Manager of the QUIMBAYA LATIN AMERICA office in ECUADOR