Metropolitan Touring, founded in 1953, is the leading Travel Corporation in Latin American with its own ship-based expeditions in the Galápagos Islands and ground-handling operations in Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina.

Expanding over half a century, the history of Metropolitan Touring is full of passion, inspiration, courage and success, with an extraordinary team of highly professional staff eager to boost tourism to Latin America, considered one of the largest and fastest growing markets for world tourism – a destination that encourages a new way of travel, to explore both its urban areas and untamed natural regions, where the spirit of adventure is accompanied by impeccable service and comfortable, stylish accommodations.

Metropolitan Touring caters to upscale world explorers, offering an in-depth knowledge of the destination and its background. Our experience of over 50 years in providing guests with unique, unforgettable and quality travel experiences has been a rewarding voyage for us too.

We offer a fulfilling selection of exciting and innovative destinations in South America’s most awesome cities and unique natural areas. Our dedication to quality, excellence in travel safety, commitment to earthly environments, and local cultures is unparalleled in the discovery business.

Metropolitan Touring’s Environmental Policy demands that we share the results of our projects and efforts. Solid-waste management is always one of the most emblematic ones not only because of its community outreach, but also because it is an example of cooperation between the public and private sectors. In Ecuador there are very few examples where such level of cooperation has generated rewarding results, and more over where the community has responded in a positive way, and has turned paradigms into new behaviors.

The cooperation between Fundación Galápagos-Ecuador, Municipal Government of Santa Cruz, Galápagos National Park, WWF, and the community, onsets a proposing way of generating integral solutions in front of waste management. After eleven years of shared work, we have reached residents, ships’ crew, hotel staff, visitors, and more. It is our delight to share with you that as of June 2009, solid waste management has achieved these results:
Plastics 226,080 pounds
Glass 751,205 pounds
Cardboard 2,181,804 pounds
Paper 189,182 pounds
Batteries 2,649 pounds
Tetrapack 29,889 pounds
TOTAL 3,380,810 pounds

Organic Garbage for Composting: 760,336 Kg (1,672,739 pounds)
Inorganic Garbage for Recycling: 1,536,732 Kg (3,380, 810 pounds)

Community and nature are at the heart of our business. We encourage the protection of Latin America’s extraordinary biodiversity and the appropriate use of its natural resources. We respect our cultural heritage, learn from it and work with the communities to create new opportunities for development.

Leadership for us is beyond being the first –we are passionate dreamers-- and generate new, original and innovative ideas. We belong to a world in constant movement and are ready for its challenges.

We believe in the power of communications. Our communications are direct, transparent and sincere; we value and encourage the opinions of others. We promote ways and means to transmit what we have learned, and through our open communication, establish quality personal and institutional relationships based on trust and respect.