Recognizing travel as a transformative experience, we embrace our responsibility to tread lightly on the planet, ensuring that the wonders we explore today remain accessible to future generations. Group travel, for us, is not just a choice but a conscious step towards a greener, healthier, more sustainable future.

Our mission goes beyond tourism; it’s a pledge to promote mindfulness, responsibility, and awareness of the impact of travel on communities and environments. We advocate for sustainable practices and ethical tourism, striving to leave a positive legacy wherever we go.

Join us on our sustainability journey, as we continue to learn and take positive steps to better preserve, protect, and give back to the communities and natural habitats we visit and live in.

Some of the other ways we’re travelling more mindfully, responsibly, and sustainably are listed below.

Local Partners

We choose to work with and support local partners, hotels, attractions, restaurants, and guides who uphold the same values and commitment to acting responsibly and reducing their own environmental footprint whenever possible when planning our tours. It is important to us to give back to communities we visit and that tourist dollars support local businesses and people.

Animal Welfare

We are committed to protecting and conserving wildlife and wildlife habitat and choose to work with companies and organizations who demonstrate and advocate for animal welfare practices that provide a good quality of life. We believe in viewing wildlife in their natural surroundings, only riding domesticated animals that are well cared for, and respecting the natural habitats we visit by keeping them litter free and avoiding disturbance. We also avoid:

  • activities that involve obvious animal cruelty (such as, animal fighting or bull running, etc.) or use animals for begging (such as, snake charming, monkeys on chains, dancing bears, etc.);
  • performances or shows where the training involves punishment or food deprivation and causes animal fear, injury or distress, or where the tasks are not based on normal behaviour;
  • Any tourist holding of, or photo opportunity with, wild animals where the animal does not have the choice of terminating the interaction or moving away;
  • tourist contact or feeding of wild animals;
  • Drugging of animals to subdue them; and
  • Unlicensed zoos.


Child Welfare

We value and respect the health, wellbeing, and safety of children. We do not partner with businesses or organizations that utilize child labour, nor do we do visits to orphanages, or hospitals on as these situations can put children at risk. Please treat children as you would at home. We ask that you please don’t take photos of children unless you have permission from their parent or guardian, the child is not uncomfortable, photos respect their dignity, and are shared in a way that honours their privacy. We also ask that you refrain from giving money or gifts to children as this can lead to and reinforce a cycle of dependency and poverty. Please donate to reputable companies that support children instead.

Shopping Locally

We encourage our guests to support the local economy by purchasing meals, gifts, souvenirs, and other items from local vendors and family-owned restaurants.

Small Group Tours

We love to offer smaller group tours to unique communities and connect curious travellers with locals for more personal cultural experiences. Smaller groups allow us to stay in smaller local accommodations such as homestays and may allow people to learn more and connect at a deeper level with the places we visit and the people who live there.

Carbon Footprint

Choosing group travel is already a responsible choice to reduce your individual carbon footprint when travelling. We continue to reduce our carbon footprint by incorporating walking tours instead of driving tours and using public transportation where it makes sense to do so. Both are a great way to immerse ourselves in the sights, sounds, and local flavour of a new place.

Reducing Waste

We strive to reduce our waste and continue to incorporate eco-friendly practices on our tours and in our daily operations. Here are a few ways you can do the same:

  • Sign up (click here) for our digital e-newsletter and let our office know you’d like to receive digital copies of our quarterly Experiences Brochure.
  • Bring a reusable water bottle when you­ travel, as we do not provide bottled water;
  • Avoid bringing single use plastics;
  • Place your litter in the larger garbage containers at the front or back of the coaches during a stop, as we no longer use the individual plastic garbage bags at each seat; and,
  • Wear your reusable Wells Gray Tours name cards on lanyards or your Silver, Gold, or Diamond name tag, if you have one.

Environmental & Community Initiatives

From our humble beginnings, donations to local charities and environmental projects, Wells Gray Tours actively gives back to the communities they serve. The company was founded in 1972 by Roland Neave who teamed up with an environmental organization to run bus tours to Wells Gray Park, to publicize and protest BC Hydro’s construction of 7 dams within the park. The project was cancelled by BC Hydro at the end of 1972, but Roland had so much fun organizing the tours that he carried on and expanded the service into a year-round business that now offers tours to all seven continents. Wells Gray Tours was created from Roland’s love of nature, passion for exploring, and his commitment to giving back and protecting the environment. This love, passion and commitment remain true to this day. Roland, his family, and Wells Gray Tours have been giving back to the environment and the communities they serve and travel to ever since.

Here are a few of the ways Wells Gray tours is giving back:

A Portion For The Planet

In 2023 Wells Gray Tours initiated “A Portion for the Planet,” allocating $50,000 annually to support environmental projects in communities where they operate offices. This donation operates on a rotational basis between the communities. Kamloops received the first donation in 2023, which went to West Coast Environmental Law to support 2 projects near Kamloops: 1) protecting Ashcroft Slough, and 2) reducing water pollution from the old Ajax Mine pits.

This year, in 2024, the Kelowna office has chosen to donate to the BC Parks Foundation. This generous contribution will support the acquisition of 28 acres on Okanagan Lake and the expansion of Okanagan Lake Provincial Park.

Seated: Roland and Anne Neave; standing (L-R) Terri Lynn Day, Pam Stewart, Shelby Lindley (WCEL), Stephanie Dilling, Danny Kulkarni, Fraser Neave

Wells Gray Park

We still stay true to our roots and take a tour to Wells Gray Park every summer (yes, Roland still leads those tours every year!) and give back to Wells Gray Park where we can.

In the spring of 2023, Roland published the 7th Edition of, Exploring Wells Gray Park. It’s over 400 colour pages of text and photos about the Park’s roads, trails, history, geology, and stories. All proceeds from book sales are being donated back to the Wells Gray Park for a variety of projects. You can purchase a copy at most bookstores and outdoor shops, as well as at our offices.

Anne and Roland have also personally funded the summer 2023 naturalist program in Wells Gray Park. The trail crew which spent four months repairing and maintaining over 100 km of park trails and the new stairway at Moul Falls, all accomplished through donations to the BC Parks Foundation.

Local Communities

Giving back close to home is important to Wells Gray Tours and each of our five offices has a budget to support local charities. In 2023, Wells Gray Tours has donated to:

  • Kamloops Food Bank – Starfish Backpacks Program
  • Project Literacy Central Okanagan Society
  • Kelowna Professional Firefighters Association – Central Okanagan Fire Relief
  • Allan Brooks Nature Centre in Vernon
  • CFAX Santas Anonymous in Victoria
  • CFAX Santas Anonymous in Victoria, and the Greater Victoria Green Team