Metropolitan Touring owns and operates three sterling vessels plus three boutique properties. In each of our hospitality products, we have implemented corporate policies to minimize our environmental footprint while seeking to create a positive impact on the people and communities where we operate.
Join us on our sustainability journey!
Today, our commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, to Carbon Neutrality (since 2017) and our work on the Environment, Social and corporate Governance (ESG) framework has led us to go further than simple environmental protection and seek to create value for all the stakeholders that we interact with and influence.
We invite you to join us on our journey to make our impact more positive for both people and planet.
All our operations have been fully carbon neutral since 2017. Not only are our offices and operations neutral, but, by traveling with us, the carbon emissions you create — calculated according to your specific itinerary — will be offset through a program run by our holding group’s foundation, Fundación Futuro.
In this way, our guests and our company protect the biodiverse and threatened forests of Ecuador’s Andean Chocó region, and help develop more sustainable livelihoods for its people.
We actively seek out new and innovative ways to reduce our carbon footprint across our properties, including the installation of solar panels, reducing food waste, better managing waste, improving purchasing, reducing packaging, and offering more vegetarian options in our menus.
Even with our best efforts in decarbonizing our operations as much as possible, we recognize that we still have a long way to go and therefore pledge to continue compensating our emissions into the future.
Through our carbon emissions offsetting program, established in 2017, all our operations are entirely carbon neutral. The program protects and helps grow the private reserve managed by Fundación Futuro in the fragile, threatened and hugely biodiverse forests of the Andean Chocó, northwest of Quito. The program also contributes to developing more sustainable livelihoods for the reserve’s surrounding communities.
We believe one of the chief means of protecting heritage is by sharing knowledge about our ecosystems and cultures. We therefore communicate regularly to our stakeholders through, for example, communicating the scientific advances in the Mashpi-Tayra Reserve to our employees, suppliers, academia, and surrounding communities. Watch an example.
We believe in a workforce that is constantly learning and expanding its capacities. We promote sustainable, responsible and inclusive labor practices. We respect the rights of workers and take measures to improve working conditions, decent wages, and health and safety at work.
We aim to be an inclusive company, one that respects and promotes equity and diversity among its collaborators, employees, suppliers and clients. We base our actions and decisions on the highest standards of ethics, integrity and respect for Human Rights. We are committed to fighting discrimination.
We protect the integrity and safeguard the privacy of our collaborators, employees, suppliers and customers. We are committed to a robust, reliable network infrastructure that minimizes the points of vulnerability against possible attacks.
We engage our supply chain in impactful social and environmental practices. We ensure ethical and environmental standards in each of the links of our supply chain through the modification of policies, and through the evaluation and selection of suppliers who care for the environment, society and stakeholders. We are developing a comprehensive education plan for strategic providers’ employees.
We aim to increase our commitment and positive impact in the communities in which we operate. We encourage our collaborators to give time and talent to contribute to the development and well-being of people and their communities. We support the development of our local suppliers.
We aspire to be a benchmark for the high levels of service and satisfaction which we give our customers and explorers. We believe that in order to transform the lives of our explorers through memorable experiences, we must always meet the highest standards of comfort and well-being.
We promote a culture of transparency across our corporation. We are convinced that transparency is essential to achieve our business’s sustainability, involving all stakeholders. We are committed to transparency, assuming full responsibility for our positive and negative impacts.
Our values and standards strengthen our organizational culture and improve the work environment of all our workers. We are committed to honest, ethical and transparent operations, free of corruption.
We are committed to implementing effective processes to curb bribery and corruption risks that may affect our business. We work against corruption in all its forms.
Renewable Energy
Reduction and Recycling of Waste
Purchasing from responsible suppliers
SUPPLY CHAIN
COMMUNITIES
Schools benefitted 5
Students benefitted 250
Income increase in 2022 thanks to local purchasing by Mashpi Lodge $220 / month for 15 familiesFamilies benefitted 19
Board members and our executive committee are both equally represented in terms of gender. 49% Men 51% Women
8.9/10 Happiness Index
We have a Code of Conduct for employees that covers matters of corruption and ethical behavior.
Given our company’s origins as pioneers in travel to the Galapagos Islands, we have always taken our responsibility to the environment seriously and made it part of our DNA.
We created the first NGO which focused on waste issues in the islands, for example, investing in infrastructure and training so that, today, the local municipality of Santa Cruz Island has the highest rates of recycling anywhere in Ecuador.
We have also played a part in the community, by inviting over 1,600 students and members of the community to embark on expedition cruises with us over the decades, in order for them to experience the true wonders of National Park and become even better stewards of its future as a result.
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One history, a thousand inspiring stories
Cruise the Galapagos Islands with the passionate experts – established in 1953! We own and operate the finest Galapagos Island Expedition Small Cruise Ship, Yacht and Vessel. Get special deals and come explore with us!
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Currency: US Dollars
© 1953-2023 Metropolitan Touring - 70 years of travel experience
GET IN TOUCH
This small, secret rooftop of the restored Casa Gangotena mansion peers over Plaza San Francisco in the center of Quito’s colonial Old Town, the world’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site. Order a Cedrón Spritz, a refreshing mix of rum, lemon, sparkling wine, and fresh lemon verbena (cedrón) syrup and leaf, then revel in the mesmerizing, real-time montage of daily life in Ecuador’s capital as it parades past.
A Font of information, Klaus has spent decades in the field, leading tours in the Amazon, Andes and Galapagos Islands. He hung up his guiding boots a few years back and now creates itineraries for the tour operator, Metropolitan Touring. Adrift in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from mainland South America, Galapagos is one of the most biodiverse locales on Earth.
Santa Cruz II is a replacement for the much-loved Santa Cruz, which plied the waters of the Galapagos for 36 years. It is not a new ship; it was built in 2002 and sailed as Mare Australis under the Australis cruise brand, operating expedition cruises around Cape Horn and to Antarctica. Metropolitan Touring bought the ship in 2015 and completely refurbished it, launching it as Santa Cruz II in October 2015.
When this modern, minimalist, glass-walled jungle lodge opened in 2012, it changed the accommodation game in South America. Arquitect Alfredo Ribadeneira’s “protective cocoon” would impress in a modern city; in the depths of an Andean cloudforest, it is wild, audacious and beautiful. Though only 70 miles from Quito, Maspi Lodge sits in splendid isolation, perched on a cliff at the end of an unsealed road.
Itinerario de 5 días / 4 noches: Basado en la tarifa regular (4214 USD + impuestos por persona)
Itinerario de 7 días / 6 noches: Basado en la tarifa regular (5672 USD + impuestos por persona)
No reembolsable. Aplica únicamente para residentes ecuatorianos en nuevas reservas directas realizadas, hasta el 30 de junio del 2022, con un ejecutivo de ventas del hotel. Válido para estadías hasta el 31 de agosto de 2022. No puede ser combinada con otros descuentos, promociones u ofertas. El descuento no aplica para otros servicios. El precio no incluye recargo de combustible de $20 por noche de crucero.
