Valencia Travel Cusco Wins Gold at LATA 2025! For The Responsible Tourism Awards!

Our Responsible and Sustainable Community Project in Peru

This very special recognition celebrates our continued work within the native Andean community of Rukha Ayllu. This rural village in the highlands of the Sacred Valley is a small and often forgotten community in the Andes of Peru. Our community-based tourism initiative was singled out as an outstanding example of how tourism can be used as an important tool for community empowerment, cultural preservation, and inclusive sustainable development.

 

Remote Weaving Community in The Highlands of Cusco

 

This Is Prestigious Recognition for Responsible Tourism!

The Latin American Travel Association (LATA) awards, presented in partnership with the International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) Latin America, highlight tourism projects that are not only successful but also serve as models of social and environmental responsibility across the continent. Judged by a panel of leaders in the tourism industry, LATA explained that this year’s winners, Valencia Travel Cusco, “represent the very best in transformational, purpose-driven tourism. We are honored to stand among such incredible projects”.

 

CEO OF Valencia Travel Cusco with The Award!

What is The Rukha Ayllu Project?

Despite being situated near one of Peru’s most iconic tourist routes, the village of Rukha Ayllu had been almost forgotten.  Home to just 25 families, this remote community lived in deeply vulnerable conditions, with limited or no access to clean water, electricity, education, or healthcare. A handful of men from this remote village found employment as porters on the Inca Trail, but these physically demanding roles became unsustainable as they aged. Once the porters were unable to continue the physically demanding job of porters, many community members faced economic insecurity and social marginalization. This is where Valencia Travel saw not just a challenge, but an opportunity.

 

Rukha Ayllu Community at The Village Fair 

 

We work directly with the residents of Ruqha Ayllu to co-create a community-based tourism experience that is both authentic and sustainable. Our mission was to ensure that the people of Ruqha Ayllu could benefit from tourism, and not just watch it pass them by. Valencia Travel Cusco has invested directly in community infrastructure, constructing hygienic restrooms, the remodeling the community center to accommodate groups of up to 40 people, and modernizing the access to the community. We have also trained community members in tourism practices. Men and women received capacity-building workshops in food hygiene, guest services, and cultural hospitality. This has equipped them with the skills needed to offer professional, safe, and heartfelt tourism experiences. We also helped them develop authentic activities rooted in Andean traditions. Visitors now have the chance to share meals, learn about traditional farming, try their hand at weaving or crafts, and understand what life is like in an indigenous Andean Mountain community. We helped the elderly and the women of the community by including economic alternatives for women and the elderly. Those who were previously excluded from trekking-based tourism due to physical limitations.  Now these community members play vital roles in welcoming guests, exchanging ancestral knowledge, and leading cultural exchanges with travelers to the community.

 

 

We firmly believe that these authentic collaborations with remote Andean communities are part of the way forward in responsible and sustainable tourism in Peru. This initiative has been fully funded by Valencia Travel as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, with no reliance on outside donations. We believe that responsible tourism begins at home, and we are proud to invest in the people and communities that make Peru such a special country to visit. Check out our blog about the tree planting activity in the Rukha Ayllu community! 

 

Real Life Andean Experiences!

 

Transformational Tourism for  Conscious Travelers to Remote Andean Communities

Our work with Rukha Ayllu goes way beyond a charitable act for the community. This is definitely more of a collaboration, a partnership that is mutually beneficial. It is based on building meaningful relationships between travelers to Peru and our humble hosts, who would not generally receive mainstream tourism due to the remote location in the high Andes. Our partnership with Rukha Ayllu is rooted in mutual respect and shared intercultural experiences.
A visit to Rukha Ayllu for travelers is a truly authentic and immersive experience, far away from the tourist trail.  Visitors don’t come as mere spectators, they are welcomed into real homes, treated to warm hospitality, and invited to experience an ancient way of life that still dictates real life in the Peruvian Andes. For many of our clients, this visit becomes one of the many highlights of their trip, and the most moving and memorable part of their tour.

 

Ancestral Andean Experiences!

 

How Does This Benefit The Community? 

These community visits are an opportunity to earn a sustainable income with dignity and preserve their unique and incredible cultural identity. This collaboration helps the community members to stay on their ancestral lands with a renewed pride and purpose. It also helps combat marginalization and stereotypes, which are often imposed by what is considered a more developed society. When in reality, we have so much to learn from them!

 

Ancient Andean Traditions

 

What This Award Means to Us, and Why It Should Matter to You!

Winning the GOLD medal at the LATA Responsible Tourism Awards is a massive honor. To be recognized for our consistent work in the communities of Peru is incredibly fulfilling.  For us,  however, this is so much more than a trophy. This is a gigantic step in the right direction of what we’ve always believed since the beginning -  that tourism can and should be a force for good. As  Dr Harold Goodwin, co-founder of The Responsible Tourism Partnership of LATA, says perfectly. “ This award showcases the hard work being done across Latin America to ensure that the benefits of tourism are being felt across the entire supply chain”.  

 

LATA Responsible Travel Award UK

 

Our mission at Valencia Travel Cusco has always been to offer our clients authentic, life-changing Peru experiences in a sustainable way. This means that our travelers have outstanding and authentic travel experiences, and we are also giving back to the people and communities where we travel. Our efforts in the Rukha Ayllu project have allowed us to create a touristic model that proves that responsible, sustainable, and collaborative tourism is indeed possible, powerful, and absolutely necessary.

Learn more about our responsible travel programs and how to visit Rukha Ayllu here!