The company is Maasai owned
Warrior Trails is owned and led by Maasai people from the community it serves. Ownership sits with the community rather than with outside investors, so the decisions and the profit stay in the same place.
Responsible Tourism
Travel That Pays Its Way
Warrior Trails is a Maasai owned safari operator in Arusha, Tanzania. Every journey funds the community it travels through.
Responsible tourism means travel that leaves a place stronger than it found it. Warrior Trails is owned and led by Maasai people. Guides, cooks and camp staff come from the Maasai community of Makuyuni. Revenue from every journey funds Nashipay Maasai Initiatives, which runs the community school, the water project, conservation work and women’s enterprise.
That is the whole model. A traveller books a journey. The journey pays wages, park fees and conservation costs. What remains stays in Makuyuni. Nothing leaves for a shareholder who has never walked the land.
The Practice
How Warrior Trails practises responsible tourism
Profit funds Nashipay Maasai Initiatives
Warrior Trails exists to fund Nashipay Maasai Initiatives. Revenue from every journey supports the school, the water project, conservation work and women's enterprise in Makuyuni.
Guiding, cooking and camp work are local jobs
Guides, cooks and camp staff are hired from the Maasai community. Wages stay in Makuyuni and skills build in the place where the work happens.
Conservation is paid for by the people who live there
The land holds its wildlife because the community that lives on it can afford to protect it. Journeys fund conservation corridors, anti poaching work and land management.
Clean water reaches families, not just camps
The Maasai Water Project builds and maintains clean water infrastructure for families in Makuyuni. Access to clean water changes daily life for every household it reaches.
Wildlife comes before the photograph
Guides keep distance, stay on track and refuse pursuit. Small groups reduce pressure on animals and on the roads that carry visitors to them.
The Proof
What the journeys have paid for
- 500 students
- enrolled at the Nashipay Maasai School in Makuyuni.
- 30 years
- guiding in East Africa, by the family that founded the company.
- 275 reviews
- at five stars, and accreditation by the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators.
Questions
Responsible tourism, answered
- What is responsible tourism?
- Responsible tourism means travel that leaves a place better than it found it. It measures success by what stays behind: local ownership, local employment, protected land and funded services. The test is who benefits when the visitors go home.
- Is Warrior Trails a responsible safari operator?
- Yes. Warrior Trails is Maasai owned, employs guides and staff from the Maasai community of Makuyuni, and funds Nashipay Maasai Initiatives with the revenue from its journeys. It is accredited by the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators.
- Where does the money from a Warrior Trails safari go?
- It pays local wages, park and conservation fees, and the running of the journey. What remains supports Nashipay Maasai Initiatives, which funds the Nashipay Maasai School, the Maasai Water Project, conservation work and women's enterprise in Makuyuni.
- Who owns Warrior Trails?
- Warrior Trails is owned and led by Maasai people from the community it serves, and operates from Arusha, Tanzania. It is a revenue vehicle for Nashipay Maasai Initiatives rather than a company owned by outside shareholders.
- How can travellers make a safari more responsible?
- Book with an operator that is owned locally and can show where the money goes. Travel in small groups. Keep distance from wildlife and follow your guide. Buy directly from community enterprises such as the beadwork cooperatives in Makuyuni.
Travel with the people whose home this is
Every journey is guided by Maasai people and funds the community of Makuyuni. Choose one, and see where it goes.
See the journeys