Our Code of Ethics for Archaeology Travel
In fulfilling our mission to encourage more people to explore our world’s pasts, we conduct our business ethically, in full compliance of the law and with complete transparency. We pay our way to produce accurate, unbiased content that promotes sustainable travel and encourages people of all backgrounds to actively engage with heritage sites. The following points outline how we achieve this.Â
â–º Archaeology Travel supports and promotes the principles of responsible travel, in particular actively encouraging irreproachable behaviour when visiting heritage sites and attractions, promoting a standard that often goes beyond the legal prescriptions set out in some countries. Recently Tiqets published an interview between Lauren Voges and Thomas Dowson that covers much of our approach towards and thinking about Historical Tourism. Here Thomas raises some issues that become important as we start to think about travelling again after the pandemic.
â–º Archaeology Travel answers to our readers, not (financially or intellectually) to shareholders or venture capitalists, or any other stakeholder with vested interests in the travel and heritage industries.
â–º We take the issue of online security seriously, and we comply with more than basic standards. Read our Privacy Policy.
â–º All information provided is original and impartial, honest and often passionate. If we work with Destination Management Organisations, we always retain editorial control over what gets published.
â–º We will only promote archaeological and historical sites and museums, as well as activities associated with these that are available to the general public.
â–º We do visit sites, museums and regions as part of sponsored trips to promote these. Often some or all of our travelling expenses such as accommodation, transport and food costs are covered by the hosts. This enables us to visit new places and write about these from an informed position. We never take payment for producing content resulting from these trips.
â–º The majority of the trips we take are not sponsored trips, and we aim to keep it this way. In 2019, Only six out of over 20 trips were sponsored; and all six involved us paying at least our travel expenses. And it should be noted, it is not unusual for services provided to be basic to say the least.
â–º Archaeology Travel earns money through affiliate partnerships with a number of companies that provide travel products and services. Such as guidebooks and maps, skip-the-line tickets and guided walking tours, day trips and archaeological/historical tours. In most, not all cases, when readers follow a link to a recommended website and purchases a product or service, we will earn a commission. We will only link to and recommend products and services under the following circumstances:
1. We will only recommend products and services that we have or would use ourselves. If we have not used it ourselves, we have either used another service or bought another product from that company. Or we have carried out extensive research, always including a discussion with the company. We only recommend products and services where there is confidence in those products and services.
2. We will never link to a service or product to earn a commission if it means that commission is added to your costs. There are instances where we have turned down the opportunity to earn commissions because the commission we would earn is added to your costs (airline tickets being one example). We will only link to services and products where the commission we earn is taken out of the advertised price.
3. We only work with companies that have a responsible and proactive attitude towards their customers, our readers. For this reason, we recommend GetYourGuide, Viator and Tiqets for most activities, tours, walking tours and tickets. One of the reasons we choose these companies is because they have fair and transparent cancellation and amendment policies. In many cases, should your plans change for any reason, your reservations can be cancelled or changed up to 24 hours before the start of the activity. If things go wrong, as sometimes can happen, GetYourGuide, Viator and Tiqets have customer service teams that are easy to contact, responsive, often working round the clock and available in many languages to address these issues. We know these works because we have used these services ourselves.
We will not hesitate to remove recommendations if we receive feedback that upon investigation changes our position.
