going further
WALKING THE FOOTSTEPS OF HISTORY
Tell me a little about one of your tours.
Church: One that we launched in November 2016 was to the Sultanate
of Oman. As far as tourism is concerned, it has been a very upmarket
resort destination, with very few people going there. However, it’s got
some wonderful historical sites: from the “beehive” tombs [at Al-Ayn]
to palaces and mosques.
We’ve put together a really fascinating seven-day tour. It’s everything
from beaches to sinkholes to 3,000-meter mountains. It’s a really stun-
ning country. It has four UNESCO sites, and we go to three of them
Why did you decide to build tours around UNESCO
World Heritage sites?
Church: I did some work for UNESCO about 10 years ago. We were
looking at the work UNESCO did: how it was funded, how they desig-
nated the UNESCO World Heritage sites. And I’ve always had this very
keen interest in how—once a site is accredited as a World Heritage
site—that site and region changes. Is it always for the better? Or is
often for the detriment of the site?
There are 1,052 designated sites throughout the world. It’s also the
most well-known [historical] designation in the world. It was an ideal
thing for us to attach ourselves to, and if you take a country as a whole
and start to look at the UNESCO sites, it gives you some sort of idea of
the heritage of the country and where the culture comes from. [The
sites] give you a good indication of where to start if you want to get
into the country.
Now, all of our tours include UNESCO World Heritage sites, however,
apart from that, they all include a large number of additional archaeo-
logical or historical sites as well.
How do you go about selecting the sites you travel to?
Church: We have selected the countries by our ability to create a tour
that would be fairly unique. We might be able to get unique access, or
we have knowledge of people who work for UNESCO on the ground,
which helps us greatly with our guides.
The actual design can take quite a long time, as long as a year or 18
months. We’ve got two or three tours lined up to launch in 2017 that
we haven’t quite gotten the details correct yet, and we won’t launch
them until we’re satisfied that everything is in place.
We often hear that travelers want authentic, local experi-
ences. What does crafting them look like for you?
Church: We tend to avoid the main flow of a tourist attraction and find
other ways to view it.
Beehive tombs in Oman
We’ve been blessed with having a number of colleagues within these
areas who know the places. Their families have been there for
generations, and they know the back roads. They know which gates to
approach the Taj Mahal, which route to use to get to Machu Picchu.
They know Stonehenge is great, but you’ll queue for two hours to get
in. However, we know where there are old neolithic tombs that you
can actually go in within a half-hour walk. It’s using the knowledge of
our local partners.
That’s what we pride ourselves on: the fact that we do keep this—
and it’s a very over-used word—sustainable. We heavily rely on the
local providers. Our local partners work with us to provide us with this
unique access and knowledge. That’s one of the key things.
As UNESCO raises the profile of these heritage sites, how
do you balance that with fragility?
Church: That is such a difficult question. In Agra, they’ve had smog
for the last 20 years, which has been introduced by heavy traffic. So
now, for a mile and a half around the Taj Mahal, you can only get there
by electric vehicles. Is that a deterrent? Yes, but it’s also good for the
locals. They’re no longer breathing these fumes. However, measures
like that take years to clean the air.
For us, the sustainability key is to use as much local enterprise as we
can. We use family-run boutique hotels, which keeps money in the
area’s economy and provides jobs for locals. We use local restaurants,
and we actively encourage our guests to partake in local food, to keep
it all in the economy. All of our guides are locally sourced, [as are] our
drivers and transportation.
The only thing where the money goes out of the country is with the
airlines and our booking fees. Apart from that, I can confidently say,
where possible, the large majority of the cost the clients are paying
stays within that community they’re visiting.
To learn more about Battered Suitcase visit battered-suitcase.com.
Reach Richard Church at [email protected].
Richard Church
Battered Suitcase, a Gloucestershire, England-
based tour operator and Faith Travel Association
member, incorporates UNESCO World Heritage
sites in its tour offerings that cover 32 countries
worldwide. Gabe Webb of NTA’s Courier
magazine caught up with Richard Church, the
company’s founder, who shared his thoughts on
packaging these iconic places and keeping his
tours sustainable.