Ayu in the Wild

SRI LANKA

Ayu in the Wild

Tour Operator, Family, Luxury, Adventure, Private Tours

Member since July 2022

Ayu means ‘life’ in Sanskrit. Co-founded by Chamintha Jayasinghe in 2012, this full-service boutique travel company based in Sri Lanka is 100% locally owned, owner-managed, women-led, and committed to impactful tailor-made travel that benefits as many Sri Lankans as possible through each emotionally engaging, experiential journey across one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

Committed to low-footfall tourism, Ayu in the Wild curates only a limited number of trips each year. Between 1% to 3% of tourism revenue is invested in homegrown initiatives, including the Classroom in the Wild spoken English initiative, which since 2014 has supported kids from a disconnected and underprivileged community. Initiatives like this one create a halo effect of engaging local experience hosts across the entire island. Projects supported include conservation initiatives, providing bursaries to rural kids and kids of community-based guides, and sustaining a school that enables hearing impaired kids to integrate into mainstream schools and universities.

Ayu in the Wild 4C impact

CONSERVATION

Supporting an environmental organisation to clear invasive species from a national park to enable healthier habitats for wild elephants.

Providing marketing insights into the Nature Based Tourism Plans project to protect selected forests and wildlife reserves in Sri Lanka.

COMMUNITY

Classrooms in the Wild supports the educational needs of children in one of
Sri Lanka’s most disconnected communities.

Each trip features local community-based guides and experiences including farmers, poets, and village headmen.

CULTURE

Deliver over 50 meaningful local experiences ranging from food to anthropology and music curated in collaboration with locals away from the usual tourist trail.

Avoid mass tourism by limiting visitor numbers and sending people to less-explored parts of the island.