Explore the world of sustainable luxury travel with our Khiri WOW Experience, “Voyage at Sea: A Marine Expedition
Whether we like to accept it or not, we live in a world where information travels fast and with that, often misconceptions travel faster. One such notion is that Luxury Travel is not sustainable and that the demands of an ultra-high net-worth traveler cannot be satisfied while being genuinely sustainable, especially due to carbon emissions. On the other hand, there’s also a school of thought that wildlife and Marine life viewing excursions only have a negative impact on the ecosystems. Our Khiri WOW Experience “Voyage at Sea; A Marine Expedition” is here to prove both of the above misconceptions wrong and showcase that Luxury travel experiences can also be done in a sustainable way.
As much as we all love to discover and observe wild and marine life, there is always an inevitable negative side to all human-animal encounters where at times tourist traffic and overcrowding have led to exhaustion of Wild and Marine life. So instead of contributing to the mass scale whale watching cruises that chase after the whales just for a photo opportunity, we have collaborated with a cruise partner who operates private cruises in a non-obtrusive manner towards the marine mammals and for a more extensive experience.
The expedition starts early in the morning from the Mirissa Fisheries Harbour in the South during the European winter months (November to April). The catamaran will be booked on an exclusive basis for our guests. As guests start sailing towards the horizon, the landscapes start to disappear and a simple breakfast will be served onboard. As they sail deep into the ocean, with some luck they will be able to see pods of Dolphins swimming around and a sighting of a whale will be the cherry on top.
Since we believe having an educational component is vital in any sustainable travel experience, to add on to the whole experience, joining our guests on the cruise will be Chathurika, a young and ambitious Marine Biologist and conservationist who will share with you her wealth of knowledge and interesting stories from her past marine expeditions.
After a few hours of sailing, the catamaran will also dock at a location where guests can get into the water to swim around and also for some standup paddle boarding. In the meantime, guests can also indulge on a glass of wine, champagne, a chilled beer or soft drinks which we will have on board. A delicious lunch will be served onboard with Seafood being the obvious highlight of the menu and thus providing a fitting finale!
To further enhance the sustainability aspect of the experience, a financial contribution to the OCEA Seagrass Restoration project in Kalpitiya is already included in the price as a means of offsetting the impact this cruise has on the environment as well as further contributing towards conservation of the environment at the same time. For guests heading towards Kalpitiya and are willing to volunteer themselves in seagrass restoration, we have also designed a half-day experience based on that.
For more information, please get in touch with us on sales.srilanka@khiri.com