Sacramento, CA
"Matava Resort is a nice dive resort on the opposite side of the island and about 40 minutes from the airstrip by boat.
It's more rustic in nature because it's built on a hillside in the jungle rather than down closer to the beachfront. Gorgeous views abound form all over the property.
They have a wonderful veggie garden and a 4 star chef offering international dishes as well as local stuff.
They also have a fully equipeed big game fishing boat captained by a record holding IGFA representative. For this kind of fishing off KDV, this is the place to stay.
Snorkeling is done at a nearshore island that you can walk to at low tide, swim to at high tide. They have great diving and good people, too. Swimming off their place is not very good - at low tide it's a sand flat. "
Kadavu Island forum - TripAdvisor
May 22, 2009
EC3 Global launches Green Globe Lite
EC3 Global launches Green Globe Lite
Green Globe Lite, a global on-line program released today, will – for the first time – provide tourism operators with a user-friendly, affordable tool to measure their business’s carbon footprint and environment performance. The program targets small to medium-size businesses (SMEs) which make up a large percentage of the tourism industry.
Green Globe Lite’s operational health check involves a quantitative assessment of the business's performance in the areas of energy consumption; CO2 emissions; water consumption and waste production. It also provides guidelines for developing and implementing a sustainability policy. It meets international standards for carbon footprint calculation and is backed by the STCRC (Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre), the world's leading tourism research body, which is in turn backed by 17 of Australia's leading tertiary education institutions and industry bodies.
“While the final structure of the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme is still to be determined, SME tourism operators are recognising the benefits of measuring their environmental performance. Apart from the operational efficiencies, there are demonstrable bottom line benefits of significantly increased savings and profits through better resource management,” explained Stewart Moore, CEO of EC3 Global. EC3 Global manages the Green Globe programme on behalf of Green Globe Asia Pacific.
Melbourne City Council's Savings in the City project benchmarked 20 city hotels for energy, water and waste and introduced sustainable practices. Over two years from October, 2005, the selected hotels saw a combined reduction in waste of 2410 tonnes, or the equivalent of 628 truckloads. One hotel spent $4000 on reducing the energy used for lighting. The changes implemented saved the hotel $15,000 per year in energy costs, and a further $7500 on maintenance.
Incorporating feedback from a series of industry workshops undertaken with Australian Hotels Association (AHA) in 2007, Green Globe Lite addresses sustainable practices within accommodation, restaurant and spa operators; visitor information centres and administration offices. The program has been applauded by the Australian Hotels Association, which is promoting Green Globe Lite to its members.
“The partnership between the AHA and Green Globe provides hotels across Australia with an affordable, easy-to-use tool to measure and assess their environmental performance. It provides a clear pathway for them to adopt sustainable policies and practices,” said AHA Chief Executive Officer Bill Healey.
At A$850 per annum, the Green Globe Lite program is an investment of only A$2.30 - or a cup of coffee - a day and is undertaken without a third party audit or additional third party input. For further information on Green Globe Lite, visit www.greenglobe.org/greenglobelite or call +61 (0) 7 3238 1900.
EC3 Global launches Green Globe Lite
May 20, 2009
Kadavu Island forum: Snorkeling at Kadvu - TripAdvisor
Upapalmtree in Fiji
"Matava- the astrolabe hideaway. Great place, great snorkelling ,great people. They will go out of their way to help you!"
Kadavu Island forum: Snorkeling at Kadvu - TripAdvisor
May 19, 2009
Matava is gonna be at Scuba Show 2009 - May 30th & 31st @ The Long Beach Convention Center
Matava is gonna be at
THE Diving Event of the Year!™
THE Diving Event of the Year!™
America's Largest Consumer Dive Expo
Now in our 22nd Year
Weekend At A Glance
| Sat., May 30 | Sun., May 31 |
| Exhibit Hall Seminars Wyland Film Festival Casino Party |
ScubaShow 2008 Video
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Scuba Show 2009 - May 30th & 31st @ The Long Beach Convention Center
May 18, 2009
Is your ecohotel really green? How to tell
Helpful tips to help you make an informed decision when booking an eco hotel
With pollution and climate change as ever-growing concerns, it is evident that every social sector needs to play a more active role in mitigating the negative impact of their actions and strive for sustainability. The tourism industry is stepping up to the plate in this struggle for sustainability and setting environmentally sound goals and standards.
In this context, the ecohotel is gaining rapid popularity. Consumers are becoming more aware of their impact on the environment, and are opting for green accommodations that tend to minimize their environmental footprint when traveling. But what are green accommodations? How can travelers know when they’re choosing eco hotels and not conventional hotels that simply advertise an eco friendly image? It’s necessary to provide a concrete definition of what an eco hotel actually is, so that travelers can make more informed decisions when booking accommodations and hotel owners can better understand how to provide for consumer demands. Generally speaking, Ecotrotters defines ecohotels as those which:
- Make important environmental improvements to their structure and practices in order to minimize their impact on the environment
- Place an emphasis on sustainability and environmental conservation
- Consider the needs of local communities and promote fair trade
- Promote knowledge and understanding of sustainability and ecological practices
When booking your accommodations, try to look for hotels that minimize their impact by employing simple practices such as using natural cooling as opposed to air conditioning, replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lamps, installing low-flow shower heads and toilets, and offering a sheet and towel reuse program whereby guests have their linens exchanged every few days instead of daily. All these simple actions provide great benefits to the environment by reducing the amount of energy needed. Recycling is another sound practice, which can include composting kitchen materials and recycling waste water. Something else you can check for when making a decision as to whether your accommodations are eco friendly or not is the hotel’s use of its grounds. Hotels are moving a step closer to sustainability, and are thus greener, when they grow their own produce or buy ingredients produced locally to prepare the food offered to their guests.
Social responsibility is another key factor when determining how green a hotel is. Eco hotels must have a deep respect for local culture and traditions and provide jobs for the local and/or indigenous populations. They should also offer environmental training programs for staff and environmental courses and seminars for hotel guests, as well as participate in ecological projects off hotel property. Check if your choice accommodations follow any of these practices.
Ecotrotters.com - Eco Articles - Is your ecohotel really green? How to tell
How to offset carbon emissions for travel and living
Take a look at the different actions you can take to reduce and offset the build-up of greenhouse gases
Human beings have needs which must be met. But in meeting those needs, our actions are causing a build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which are a consequence of the energy and the services we use every day. We burn fossil fuels for electricity in our homes and businesses, for transportation, and to manufacture the goods we buy and consume every day. Considering that doing without energy seems highly unlikely, we should at least take actions to offset our CO2 emissions. This is where carbon offsets come into play.
Carbon offsets are financial instruments representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions which allow governments, businesses, and individuals to compensate for their emissions. One carbon offset represents the reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases. Carbon offsets are bought by either governments and businesses to comply with restrictions on the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions allowed, or at a much smaller scale, by individuals, businesses, and governments that wish to mitigate their emissions. By participating in sustainable projects, we are generating offsets. Some of these projects include reforestation, energy efficiency projects, methane abatement, and the production of renewable energy, such as hydroelectric dams and wind farms.
Although these projects may seem unrelated to our daily lives, there are plenty of simple actions we can take to offset carbon emissions. Through more efficient heating, cooling, and lighting we can drastically reduce our energy consumption. By simply replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps and taking out our sweaters from the closet and lowering the thermostat during winter months, we are making a difference, believe it or not. Carpooling and using public transport are also simple actions that lessen our impact.
When traveling, many of us decide to fly to our destinations, either for comfort or to save time. Air travel, however, produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other form of transportation. We can make our travel greener by donating to a series of projects that help offset greenhouse gases resulting from our trips. The internet offers hundreds of sites introducing carbon offsetting projects to which you can make donations. The environmental impact of your flight is calculated and a price is allotted as to how much that impact actually costs. You donate that amount to the project, and thus offset the emissions caused by your flight. Several airlines throughout the world are also looking at neutralizing the effects of their flights on the environment, so before you buy your ticket, check if your airline company is involved in a carbon offset program.
Most carbon offset projects that you may participate in will not only reduce global carbon emissions, but will improve the quality of life of the populations where the projects are developed. Through a reforestation project, for example, we are not only reducing carbon emissions, but also providing a better education for children who would otherwise spend their time collecting wood for fuel. We are also helping preserve forests and providing a habitat of many plants and animals.
Participating in offsetting practices is not as difficult as it seems. There are numerous types of activities that can generate carbon offsets. We can modify many of our daily activities to reduce our carbon emissions, make donations to established carbon offset programs, or do business with companies and service providers that follow carbon offsetting practices. Whatever action we take, we must always study our options and choose transparent methods for mitigating our impact.
Ecotrotters.com - Eco Articles - How to offset carbon emissions for travel and living
May 15, 2009
Whole Travel Launches Rating System To Keep Eco-Friendly Hotels Honest
The “green” incarnation of travel, called ecotourism, mandates that travelers minimize their cultural, economic, and environmental impacts as much as possible to promote sustainability. But while there are thousands of hotels worldwide that promote themselves as “green”, many of them are only partially fulfilling these requirements - they might not be wasting energy, but are paying locals at near-slave wages, or funneling money out of the local economy.
Whole Travel, a new site that launches tonight, is looking to keep these hotels honest while promoting the concept of sustainable travel. The site assigns each hotel with a score based on its environmental, cultural, and economic impacts, as well as its “customer interaction”, or how well it teaches visitors about the issues that affect their destination.
To receive a score, hotels first self-assign a rating based on how well they think they fare in each category. Whole Travel CEO Matthew Davie acknowledges that these scores will be biased, but believes that submitting a misleading score would actually hurt hotels in the long run, as readers of the site would be able to tag them as dishonest and discourage prospective customers. However, the site isn’t relying on good faith alone - it is also working with local non-profits around the world to verify rating for hotels in their regions. The site is also working with international non-profits like Sustainable Travel International, which has similar goals but is based on a “badge” system that hotels need to pay for to become accredited as Green.
Besides the new hotel rating system, Whole Travel also includes a number of more standard features that you’d expect on a travel site. Users can search for hotels using descriptive keywords rather than location names (you could search for “relaxing” for a list of locations that fit the bill). The site also includes standard lists of hotel pricing and links to Kayak to book flights and hotels.
As a travel site Whole Travel isn’t doing anything new - you can aggregate hotel listings on countless other places across the web. But its “green” hotel rating system could prove both very popular and very lucrative, provided the site is able to establish credibility. And with partnerships with major hotel chains already in the works, the company may not be far from painting the world - and its pocketbook - green.
Whole Travel is a travel site that encourages eco-friendly tourism by aiming to rate hotels by how “green” they are. World Travel also changes the way people search for travel locations by searching for activities rather than location. Learn More
Whole Travel Launches Rating System To Keep Eco-Friendly Hotels Honest
Whole Travel, a new site that launches tonight, is looking to keep these hotels honest while promoting the concept of sustainable travel. The site assigns each hotel with a score based on its environmental, cultural, and economic impacts, as well as its “customer interaction”, or how well it teaches visitors about the issues that affect their destination.
To receive a score, hotels first self-assign a rating based on how well they think they fare in each category. Whole Travel CEO Matthew Davie acknowledges that these scores will be biased, but believes that submitting a misleading score would actually hurt hotels in the long run, as readers of the site would be able to tag them as dishonest and discourage prospective customers. However, the site isn’t relying on good faith alone - it is also working with local non-profits around the world to verify rating for hotels in their regions. The site is also working with international non-profits like Sustainable Travel International, which has similar goals but is based on a “badge” system that hotels need to pay for to become accredited as Green.
Besides the new hotel rating system, Whole Travel also includes a number of more standard features that you’d expect on a travel site. Users can search for hotels using descriptive keywords rather than location names (you could search for “relaxing” for a list of locations that fit the bill). The site also includes standard lists of hotel pricing and links to Kayak to book flights and hotels.
As a travel site Whole Travel isn’t doing anything new - you can aggregate hotel listings on countless other places across the web. But its “green” hotel rating system could prove both very popular and very lucrative, provided the site is able to establish credibility. And with partnerships with major hotel chains already in the works, the company may not be far from painting the world - and its pocketbook - green.
| Website: | wholetravel.com |
| Location: | Palo Alto, California, United States |
| Founded: | September, 2006 |
Whole Travel Launches Rating System To Keep Eco-Friendly Hotels Honest
May 10, 2009
How to add fair trade to your ecovacation
Easy ways to promote the cultural integrity of local communities during your travel
When thinking of eco vacations, unspoiled natural environments and green hotels are what probably first comes to mind. However, eco holidays also entail a certain respect and concern for the local communities we are visiting. By directly supporting local communities as much as possible during our travels, we are contributing to the preservation and improvement of the area, and thus helping to create benefits for the locals as well as future travelers. But how can we support local communities during our travels? One simple, transparent way is by adding fair trade to our eco vacation.
Fair trade is an international certification program that aims to alleviate world poverty by empowering small producers and eliminating the middleman, supporting environmental sustainability in the process. Farmers and laborers in developing countries are more often than not paid extremely low wages that cannot cover their daily expenses. Through fair trade practices, however, wages paid must allow workers to at least cover the cost of sustainable production. By earning appropriate wages, producers may spend more, which helps the community as a whole. Workers also receive an added premium to promote the community’s economic growth. Working conditions are also improved through specific health and safety requirements that must be met.
Although fair trade leads to fair wages and better working conditions, it provides an added bonus- environmental protection and sustainability. Most fair trade products are organic, and those which are not usually follow specific production practices that are environmentally sustainable. For example, although the farm itself may not be certified as organic, chances are that the farmer will still be practicing organic farming techniques such as minimizing pesticides and herbicides. This leads to more natural crops and a reduction of the negative environmental impact resulting from human activity. And as consumers, we enjoy healthier, more delicious products.
Considering the obvious benefits of fair trade, then, we should try to participate in the process during our vacation. We can do this by thinking about where our money goes before buying anything. We must ask ourselves, was this piece of jewelry/craft/souvenir made by local artisans? Was this fruit/vegetable grown by local farmers? Buying from local artisans and producers, eating at local restaurants that buy from local producers, and staying at hotels that both employ locals and buy from locals are some simple ways of contributing to the fair trade ideal. Both at home and away, we can maintain the principles of fair trade by taking a look at what we buy. The easiest way to buy fair trade items is to look for the Fair Trade certified label. And we must remember- not only by participating in environmental projects or reducing our energy consumption are we helping the world become a better place.
Ecotrotters.com - Eco Articles - How to add fair trade to your ecovacation
May 8, 2009
Hostels that we find outstanding
A collection of hostels that we find outstanding. Check it out:
Lazy Fish – www.lazyfish.co.nz – New Zealand
The Lazy Fish has been around for a long time now (two decades?) but it still is one of the nicest places you can find. Tucked away in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds it is only reachable by boat and with its love for details is creates a great atmosphere.
Izhcayluma – www.izhcayluma.com – Ecuador
Nestled in the Valley of Longevity this unique place combines it all: rich nature, cosy accommodation, great food and a beautiful pool. You can tell that the owners have set up their dream hostel.
Matava - www.matava.com – Fiji
Few getaways in Fiji can boast secluded splendour combined with the adrenalin rush of adventure like Matava. This place is unique. You can not beat the combination of this eco-oriented far out place and world-class diving at the Great Astrolabe Reef.
Dolphin Bay Divers – www.dolphinbaydivers.com – Fiji
No roads, no cars, no discos, no dress code – this amazing place caught our attention due to its unbelievable setting. You are at the beach and in the jungle at the same time, sharks swimming up right to your tent…The diving is magic!
The Tree House – www.treehouse.co.nz – New Zealand
The tree House is set in a subtropical garden next to a great forest and right at the water of Hokianga Harbour. The owners are chilled people and it is easy to get sucked into this easy lifestyle. It is the place to chill out.
Poc-Na Youth Hostel – no internet site – Mexico
The pirate hangout on Isla Mujeres: Right at the beach it features this unsurpassed Bacardi island feeling. It is basic, not to say rustic, but it certainly is one of the greatest places to meet fellow hard-core travellers.
Cat’s Hostel – www.catshostel.com – Spain
This beautiful hostel in Madrid adds some sophisticated European style and flavour to the international hostelling scene. Cat’s is so stunningly beautiful that you never want to leave – you just need to hang out around the central patio and take it all in. And then you go out and party hard.
Red Lantern House – www.redlanternhouse.com – China
This Chinese courtyard hostel is a great introduction to the country. While not exactly ion Beijing downtown this family-run business preserves the charm of a splendid era. Stuffed with Chinese ornaments you feel like Tintin on a mission…
Arnott’s Lodge – www.arnottslodge.com – Hawaii
Be prepared for some big adventures while on Big Island – the place to stay is Arnott’s Lodge in Hilo (Yes, the owner is one of the cookie guys). Set in a lush tropical garden Arnoot’s provides everything a budget-minded traveller could wish for. They organise outstanding day trips.
NotSoHostel – www.notsohostel.com – USA
Charleston, South Carolina, may not be on the backpacker trail, but it does have an outstanding Hostel. The NotSoHostel provides some Southern architecture and hospitality. The fantastic veranda and porches are especially cosy.
Sell, Buy or Rent a Hostel
Apr 23, 2009
Matava featured front page of Fiji Times - Matava - Fijis Premier Eco Adventure Resort
Matava Fiji’s Premier Eco-Adventure Resort was featured front page of Fiji Times on April 23rd 2009.
We recommend Foxit Reader for pdf reading.
“Our precious heritage has to be well managed and preserved for long term benefits with tourist increasingly looking for pristine destinations for their holidays.
“A very important product of our tourism industry is our environment. This is an emerging trend whereby many visitors give weight to environmental consideration when choosing a holiday.”
Those are the words of the Chairman of Tourism Fiji, Patrick Wong in congratulating Matava Fiji’s premier Eco-Adventure Resort, the official winner of Padi Asia Pacific Awards in the category Project Aware Marine Environment Award 2009.
Matava featured front page of Fiji Times - Matava - Fijis Premier Eco Adventure Resort
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