MatKon Travel

We help the tourism industry drive sustainable change

Is it possible for tourism to become a platform which helps people develop relevant insights into themselves, communities, and nature in order to create a sustainable and peaceful co-existence?
Can tourism help communities and cultures maintain or regain their authenticity and self-sufficiency?
For this to happen, a carefully designed tourism infrastructure and deep knowledge of and collaboration with the people and nature of the destination, is necessary.
Our purpose is to create, maintain and deliver such a tourism infrastructure to travel companies.

The areas we focus on and the foundation under our efforts

Regenerative Agriculture

No synthetics, tillage. Running animals. Cover crops. This plays a pivotal role in the health of any ecosystem. When we observe the natural processes of this planet, we will see that every organism has purpose – a function beneficial to the continuous lifecycle. Regenerative agriculture is about adapting to natural lifecycle processes, through careful observation and balanced practice. Chemical inputs are irrelevant here, since they are degrading soil, plant and animal health. Monoculture as well as tillage is not a part of this process either. Communities relying on regenerative agriculture and landscape practices in general, are also more resilient against adverse weather conditions. Our local partners who offer accommodation either purchase from regenerative agriculture or have their own piece of land where they practice it. Some partners are in a planned transition, and we connect them with experts in this field.

Local food supply

We wish to see resilient and self-sufficient communities. Our vision is that tourists as well as residents are supplied with food grown from local, regenerative farms. Together with local partners, we improve collaborations between producers and buyers as well as bridging expectations from consumers and businesses with what less destructive farming systems will deliver. For example, tourists might have to accept that certain foods are available in one season but not in the next. Many accommodations have their mind set on the idea that such farmers are too inconsistent in their produce. In fact, local regenerative farming are much more resilient to adverse weather conditions as well as price changes in international transport.

Local take-back system

The tourists’ or our local partners’ generated waste will be sorted, collected, upcycled or recycled. A typical local partner in our tourism infrastructure will offer accommodation as well as produce food to some degree. Waste will be generated from this and it’s at the foundation of our tourism infrastructure to find the most optimal second life for these materials. For this purpose, our network of partners includes designers, shops and platforms of communication that links partners and their materials.

Accommodation and facilities

All accommodations in our infrastructure are small-scale guesthouses located on local residents’ own property, often where they live themselves. Other accommodations are refurbished properties in and around villages. Our partners prioritize durable and reused materials for building – via various local sources, one being our take-back system. Basic comfortability is provided while energy, material and land use per tourist is kept at a minimum.

Leisure and learning

When we retreat from our daily lives and go on holidays, our minds are also given time and space to calm down. This is a good time to look into topics that actually interests us, but we didn’t manage to go deeper into. Some people might be wish to take this opportunity to look inside and engage in spiritual practices. Others might be interested in what is going on around us and look into human societies, behavior and the various living systems established where you are and around the world. A part of our tourism infrastructure is to give people opportunities and spaces to learn about themselves and the world they are a part of. We include various methods of learning various topics, into the itineraries that we build together with our clients. Hands-on learning of various disciplines - regenerative agriculture, building projects, foraging food in nature, upcycling skills, etc. Learning is key to create a long-term impact of peace and sustainability, for ourselves, living beings around us and the planet as a whole.

Reviving villages

Villages today are often left empty, primarily because rural communities can no longer provide income, desired education, or the desired lifestyle. However, the tangible resources which are needed for living, are often still there. It is relevant to establish a balance in societies between urban and rural communities, since individuals who are not exposed to life with nature have difficulties relating to how the living world works. This impairment can result in harmful activities and a culture that lack correlation with the actual environment. Culture, wherever it is created, will mirror the conditions in which it is created. Thus, villages and the rural life, act as birthplaces of culture that connects us the surrounding environment. Besides directly including villages in the groundwork of our itineraries through accommodation and various produce use, we’re connecting individuals, organizations and institutions in villages and cities to restore a common base of insight into rural life.

Reuse what can be reused – this simple yet vitally important principle remains a cornerstone in our way of doing business. During the last 10 years we have put all our efforts to create a locally closed loop, which would allow to prolong the life cycle of most of the physical products that end up in Matkon, as well as reduce (and eliminate in a longer perspective) the waste.

Partners and Clients