Company Description

Lilac Adventures (K) Ltd is a tour firm based in Kenya with the headquarters being in Mombasa.
Lilac was established in order to offer a wide range of tourism products in the east African region. Over the years, we have been able to register sustained growth of our customer base which now transcends all the continents. Our major clients are still the traditional European and American market and it is growing.
We have a relatively young and vibrant team of professionals with a lot of experience and knowledge of the tourism sub sector.
We are committed to offering superior personalised customer care to our guests by offering customised safaris.

Economic Responsibility

At Lilac Adventures (K) Ltd, we are well aware that the major economic challenge facing our country and indeed the entire East African region today is unemployment. The youth are unfortunately hardest hit.
Lilac is a tour firm that gives equal opportunity to our youth especially to be able to earn a decent living. We encourage not just the company growth but the career growth of the individual.
Whenever possible, we always give priority to local people if and when opportunities for employment arise in our organisation.
While some of our guests specify the accommodation and transport they require, we are keen supporters of the eco-lodges concept. These lodges are owned by the local people and are usually to be found in areas outside protected areas but teeming with wildlife. These areas serve as wildlife conservation areas. Some of the lodges we use include Shompole, Mukutan Lodge, and Mida camp among others. We also encourage our guests to stay in other lodges that have a commitment to uplifting the local people. Such lodges include; Serena Lodges, Wilderness Lodges, Sarova and Aberdare Safari Hotels. These lodges are well known for their contribution towards the development of the areas around which their properties are to be found.
In excursions especially in Mombasa, we like to take our guests to such places as Ngomongo village and Bombolulu Workshop where physically challenged locals make and sell carvings and other crafts. We also take our guests to Akamba Handicraft centre where guests can see the entire carving process and purchase products. This goes a long way in raising the standards of living of the locals.We also arrange cultural tours to villages around the coast where our guests learn about our culture. They also get to sample our food. All the proceeds go to the locals. One of the villages we frequent is Kwale in the South coast.
By dutifully paying our taxes, we are helping our government achieve its economic goals too.

Environmental Responsibility

The long term future of the tourism industry as a whole and our company is dependent on the wise use of our natural and other resources in a sustainable manner.
At Lilac adventures, we contribute towards the various environmental conservations by belonging to organisations such as the Ecotourism Society and Nature Kenya. We also actively take part in environmental awareness activities such as beach clean-ups and World Bird Watch.
James, our Naturalist has been working as a volunteer in conjunction with WWF EARPO in training of local forest scouts and guides in Shimba hills national reserve and Arabuko Sokoke Forest.
One environmental friendly office practice we have adopted is ROC (Reduction of Costs). We encourage recycling of envelopes and printing paper to both keep our operating costs low and also save our forests from where we get paper. We also use detergents and other materials in the office that do not harm our environment.
Some lodges and hotels are known to release untreated sewage into rivers and into the ocean. It is our policy not to give such any business.
Before we take our guests to any accommodation, we normally do an inspection of their facility to ensure they adhere to environmental rules. Besides, it is a requirement now that all accommodation facilities carry out an environmental Impact Assessment before they can have their licenses renewed. We ensure that is done too.

When briefing our guests, we always tell them to observe the rule of “take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints” in the parks. Our well trained drivers ensure they maintain a distance from wildlife to avoid stampeding them. We always politely request our guests not to make noise as it may scare wild animals or cause them to act aggressively. So far, our efforts on this front have been very successful. We also are happy to note that most of our guests have commented that our drivers do not speed and neither do they crowd animals.All the parks in Kenya contribute towards conservation since they are themselves conservation areas that harbour wildlife. More specifically, parks like Masai Mara and Amboseli are managed in a way that all the proceeds of tourism go towards conservation efforts in those areas and local community development.

Social responsibility

At Lilac Adventures (K) Ltd, we have set out to improve the conditions of living of our youth especially as a way of giving back to society.
We are committed to offering employment, bursaries, on the job training ad field attachments to tourism students from all over the country.
We also contribute generously to community programmes and project especially those about hunger and poverty reduction.
A major project we are involved in is the development of Shimba Hills Forest Guides (Shifoga). We are involved in capacity building of the guides and marketing of their Nature walk and village visits. We also take our guests to visit these projects where the forest guides take the guests through nature walk and village visits culminating in a traditional dance.
Kenya boasts over 42 different ethnic groups with different cultures and values. Besides, we have different religious beliefs. Our unity in diversity arises from our respect for these different cultures.
We encourage all our guests to respect and indeed learn the cultures of the Kenyan people. We encourage decency in dressing for all our guests.
We are also signatories to efforts to stop sexual and other exploitation of children in Tourism
The value of local knowledge of a tourism product is valued in our company. We always get a local guide for specific areas such as old town (Swahili Guide), Masai village (Masai Guide) and many other places.