Going off track to find the right path for Himalayan tourism

Vandana Vijay’s Offbeat Tracks launched in 2016 to spread the concept of experiential travel and sustainable community-based ecotourism in India, especially among rural communities in the Himalayas. In this “GT” Insight, Ms Vijay offers examples of how she translates her travel & tourism philosophy into action.

Over the past one year we have worked inch by inch toward realising our vision of promoting experiential travel across India with a focus on skills and infrastructure development via ecotourism. We have devised three main ways to accomplish this:

• Custom-made experiential vacations with a special focus on ecotourism and communities;
• Working with academic institutions across the country to sensitise students about rural ecotourism and the business potential; and
• Using the concept of volunteer-based community initiatives and ecotourism to build out infrastructure in rural communities.

I will give examples of each of the above-mentioned models that we are working on at Offbeat Tracks.

Read on at https://goodtourismblog.com/2017/10/going-off-track-find-right-path-for-himalayan-tourism/