truly Inspired!

Just after writing the Microfunding for Tourism blog on the Far West Chamber of Commerce, (which incidentally is vying for the top five position in the RT Network Meeting in Berlin), I thought I will not go on and on about this area, at least for a while.

No can do! These people are really inspirational, and motivated. Just concluded the first training of tour operators, and we already have two products described, itineraries made, costed out and ready to roll. How cool is that? Some things make consultancies worth it!

The first one is a day trip to Badha Village (I promise I will bring it out here once its fully finalised) off Dhangadhi, either on jeeps, motorcyles, bicycles or for the more authentic lovers, on a bullock cart! Done via one lake, and a Shiva temple, with the drive passing through community forests, is really wonderful. What awaits at the other end is also fantastic... authentic Tharu culture, complete with dances, music and authentic food, not to mention a bullock cart tour of the village. What fun!

The second is a overnight trip combining a Ramsar site marsh, a river beach picnic and culminating in the forests of Bardia, where one relaxes into the night over a fire, and the next day does jungle activites in search of a tiger!

Rounded, well thought off, costed, itineraries developed to minute accuracies!

Could not have asked to work with a more motivated bunch of individuals. So far, this WILD west rocks!

So, here is a way to participate... get on this facebook page for Destination Far West Nepal... and befriend these amazing people!

How local travel benefits Nepal!

Finally, a movement that will hopefully bring more and more travelers to travel locally. Over the years, this type of travel is growing. Am talking about the new website www.localtravelmovement.com, a website bringing together proponents of local travel all in one place, so it is visible and has a movement status.

socialtours just joined it as one of the partners from Nepal, as this is where we are based, and this sort of movement is crucial for us, as we market direct and have to rely on clients who are aiming to buy locally.

Alex Narracott (www.muchbetteradventures.com) has described quite adeptly in an article entitled The importance of 'travelling local' in adventure sports (read it here) and I completely agree with him when he summarises at the end in this way

"Experience, access and sustainability. Three very good reasons why the adventure world as a whole - traveller, host and intermediary - should all being looking to go local at every opportunity"

I like to focus on the sustainability part. This is crucial for the future of businesses and the stability of the economies in the long run. As more and more people travel locally, all aspects of the business, from marketing to operations to after sales, start being performed by local operators, giving them much needed capacity boost, pride, skill enhancement etc, which in the long run will serve them good.

Agents also have a very short bursts of loyalty towards a destination. It is only local operators who are dedicated to marketing and selling a particular destination. In Nepal, this came to the attention of the 'ground handlers' (spoilt by year and years of just ground handling for western companies) quite starkly when the Maoist insurgency and the negative Travel Advisories hit the industry. Agents in the West turned away much too quickly (even though not a single Westerner was targetted through the 15 years the insurgency went through), leaving a big void, and taking back the industry about 13 years in terms of arrivals. If the local operators were capable, this would never have happened.

It had desirable effects too, as the men separated from the boys and Nepal started taking reign of its tourism again. There are more operators now who promote local travel and are taking control of their own markets.

A movement such as this will go a long way in supporting Nepal and the sustainability of tourism in this tiny country. Kudos in starting this!

The paradoxes of being Nepalese

I was hoping that I would not write about this incident, but thought it best to record it, while it is still fresh in my mind. Have a previous post also that can be linked to this one, as that also are incidents which bring mixed emotions...

also read: a nation of contrasts

So, we are visited in Ghana by a Nepalese adventurer, Lok Bandhu Karki, who is cycling around the world and is somewhere in the middle of his trip (57 countries in 4.5 years so far). His target is 113 countries in nine years. So when some of our Nepalese friends here decided to call him for dinner and also invited us, we were naturally excited. What an adventurer. Big rush. Nepalese friends got together for the dinner.

Mr. Lok Bandhu comes in the door, in his daura surwal, with a big traditional Namaste and a folder in his hands. All is well so far.

Then expectant ears over drinks and dinner only heard, from this adventurer, a call for financial support, and we realise that the big folder is not a record of his experiences but a record of the letters of appreciation and the money that he has received so far, 40,ooo + dollars in all. He was not here to meet fellow Nepalese, and tell them of his travels and adventures. He had only come here to ask for money and wanted to pressure Nepalese around the world, whereever he went, into 'pushing' him forward financially, as he, according to himself of course, was a messenger of peace and brotherhood, and was distributing leaflets to this effect all around the world.

What a letdown! What does one do in a situation like this? Just another of those situations.

Would not have even written this blog post, but after 'begging' up 1345 USD from the Kofi Annan Center in Accra and the Indian Association, our messenger of peace and harmony wrote us a text message, saying that this was the city where he met the worst Nepalese so far! That after one of us put him up in his house for three days and gave him 160 USD for his visas (not to mention the Red Label bottle he emptied), one brought him to his house for dinner and also contributed about 30 USD, and me (stupid me) in my infinite "useless" wisdom, offered to build his online presence and support him doing that through facebook pages, twitter and blogs, for the next four and half years of his travels. Oh and yes, I did not give him any financial 'push'!

OK, me being me, I also gave him a little piece of my mind! Just told him about this very dilemma in my mind!

So, am still confused, am I proud of him or not?

Travel Philanthropy in Action!

Now this is a post that really suits the title of this blog..... ...be inspired!

Tourism companies are coming together to do "real" work on the ground to support rehabilitation efforts following the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila. Strangely enough, it has not been reported too widely in the western media, so no one knows about it, but this cyclone killed over 200 people and has widely displaced people, and in the reserves in the Sunderbans, wildlife, including the endangered Royal Bengal Tiger.

Some pictures of the devastation from the new search engine, www.bing.com is here http://www.tinyurl.com/ailapics ... I warn you that some of the pictures will depress you.

However, nature has a way to strike and there is nothing we can do about it, except follow in its wake and do the humanitarian thing. HELP! in any way we can.

In this particular case, the response has been inspiring. The Blue Yonder and Travel to Care were quick to respond to the actions initiated immediately by Help Tourism, all private tourism operations, concerned, responsible, and committed. Thats inspiring. And that is not all. Immediately across the world, Grace Tours in Denmark, Ethical Travel Portal in Norway and Respontour.net in Austria, chipped in and set up bank accounts and have started a campaign of fund raising to help support the rehabilitation efforts on the ground. Again, all private operations, concerned, responsible and committed.

Talk of Travel Philanthropy in action! Kudos, Asit, Raj Basu, Gopi, Ashish, Karen, Marcus, Linda ... You are inspiring a lot of people right now!


___________________________________
Letter from the organisers requesting support

Cyclone Aila hit Eastern India & Bangladesh on 24th of May 2009 and left a path of destruction in its wake directly affecting over 5 million people and reportedly killing 200 people. Although under-reported by western media, local aid agencies say that the true extent of the tragedy is gradually unfolding.

A number of districts in West Bengal, India are deeply affected as heavy rains and gale force winds tore into houses and trees, damaging roads, electrical & communication infrastructure. Further south in the Sunderbans Delta, over 400,000 people in 200 villages are marooned due to floods. With their homes under water due to breaches in embankments, schools and government offices are serving as temporary, but wholly inadequate shelter, while others are still at the mercy of the elements. According reports from UNDMT India, many villages in the worst-affected areas still remain inaccessible.

Asit Biswas from the NGO, ACT (Association for Conservation and Tourism) reported from the world famous Sunderbans, home to the Royal Bengal tiger, that “thousands of villagers are still stranded without food or freshwater in Bali and adjacent islands. Cultivated fields and fresh water bodies have turned saline due to breaches in embankments; carcasses of their cattle are still floating, leaving homeless communities to ponder about their livelihoods. “

Traveltocare.com in association with The Blue Yonder and Help Tourism has set up a “Cyclone Aila 2009 Support Group” on the social networking site ‘Facebook’. The group has launched a fund raising campaign to help the people affected by the cyclone. For more information pls see http://rtnetworking.org/aila

Karen Stigsen of Traveltocare.com said, “We have our partners, ACT in West Bengal, working closely with local communities and in conservation initiatives for several years. To help in their initiatives in disaster relief, we took up the responsibility to help raise funds for them.“ Our joint initiative has also partnered with Charities Aid Foundation in India (www.cafindia.org) so that funds we raise can be transferred to their account. CAF India will then redistribute the funds to assist in the work undertaken by ACT.

Based on daily reports from ACT and other local agencies, assessment of the damage is still going on and we are yet to receive the extent to which financial support will be needed in different locations. Four trucks of essential items and medicine have been sent to those most in need.

We invite all individuals and organisations to join us in this initiative and make a positive difference to the lives of thousands of people. Working closely with our local partners, we will send you regular updates on how the funds are being utilised & the status on the ground. Any surplus funds raised will be utilised for disaster mitigation, rehabilitation, conservation & livelihood support of the local region.

The bank details are in the hyperlink below. Please note that any transfers should have a reference code “FBCA2009”. This way, it is easy for us to track down the amount raised. We look forward to your support.

Donation details are available
http://rtnetworking.org/aila/donate.htm

Updates are also available on
http://rtnetworking.org/aila/update.htm

If you are on Facebook, you can follow it at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85465385255

On twitter, follow the #aila2009 hashtag for activity and updates on how this is progressing.

Freakonomics: The problem with non-profits - A response

This was written in response to an article that appeared in the New York Times Opinion column Freakonomics. The article is titled

The Problem With Non-Profits: A Reader’s View By Stephen J. Dubner

My comment:

1. Salaries need to be paid. And if you give peanuts, you will only get monkeys.

2. The problem with non-profits lies elsewhere hidden in issues of accountability and connected to this is the demands of donors to “perform” (whereas there is no objective definition of what that performance is nor an indicator to measure it) and the resultant misuse (not corruption, just ill management) of a valuable resource such as money, specially in poor countries.

The latter, in my belief is a much much larger problem for charities, and will require a sea change in philosophy and practice.

I think it is pretty clear and does not need elaboration at all.

Lately, though, through my various affiliations with charities (some started by private sector and some by the development sector) I am more and more convinced that the only type of development that seem not to waste this valuable resource is the one initiated by the private sector.. I am a private sector entrepreneur, and put 10% of profits into charity.. when I do my charity, I want every penny to go to the cause, in a right responsible way, and since it is my hard earned money (OK, my organisations hard earned money) I will make damn well sure that it is accounted for and is done right (at least, from my understanding of what is right and wrong)

- Raj Gyawali

The author suggest the following in his post

I am writing to suggest a blog topic about a book I recently finished reading called Uncharitable [by Dan Pallotta]. Uncharitable concludes that the constraints society places on non-profits leave them unable to solve the great social problems of the world. The book argues for the capitalization of philanthropy, including: competitive wages to attract the best applicants, increasing spending on advertising to build demand for philanthropy, and allowing investors to purchase stocks in non-profit organizations so philanthropy is not capital barren.

One of the key points of the book is that the method we currently use to evaluate charities, through efficiency ratios, provides no information about the effectiveness of an individual charity and leads an organization to focus exclusively on the short term (at the cost of long-term planning) and develop extreme risk-averse preferences (which leaves them unwilling to take risks which could lead to innovations).

----------

The comments eventually stray to the problems of non-profits and the wastage through high salaries etc.

Comment: the need for professional Adventure Graduates

This is a comment on the article entitled New Zealand nurtures adventure students that appeared on travelmole.com .. read the article here


Finally the industry can get people trained for this purpose, not just interested people who have to be trained from scratch.

In Nepal, where my business is located, there is a big need (as opposed to demand) for professionals in adventure of all types... soft, medium and hard core.

We have tons of trained guides, raft guides, paraglider pilots, mountain bike specialists, etc... but all of them have learnt it on the job (which mind you is not a bad way to learn) but there is the other side of things... customer service, leadership skills, etc. which is greatly lacking. Our guides are excellent in just that... but what is required is leadership.

Hopefully a program such as this can produce future leaders, and not just workers... that is what the industry requires!

This is not a place to advertise, but Nepal would be more than willing to take in a few interns... I know my company would!

Profiling the Eco-Guest

this is a comment made to the article on

Green is the new Luxury on Travel Mole written by Sally Broom, www.yoursafeplanet.com

I was at this interaction too, and it was very interesting. The one thing that really hit me was that no one really knew who the eco-guest was, and I love this fact.

Gone are the days when you can profile a consumer based on how much money he/she has and what the education level is. I used to be in the consumer market research business several years ago, and it will be interesting to see how market research will tackle this new challenge. The difference now is that people are basing their purchases on values and principles (and this is not income or education driven). Its fantastic and exciting.

We are so used to follow an old age approach of divide and rule (basically fit everyone into boxes and then market to them) that we forget that this is a wonderful opportunity to market to everyone. And the challenge to cater to such a vastly different clientele is awesome.

The initiatives mentioned at this interaction were also wonderful, albeit a bit targeted to only the rich customer, whose eco/non eco balance might be a bit skewed, but it was interesting / inspiring to hear this prespective.

No End to Politically Aggravated Lunacy!

Yup! I found the perfect expansion of NEPAL as it stands today (sorry.. as it is moving into the future...) But just to put it to record... we used to once say it stood for "Never Ending Peace and Love" (not perfect "inglis" but the message was there), which was given up a long long time ago. We had hung on desperately to this till about 1995/96, when all hell finally broke loose! Mention that nowadays and you might be stoned (literally or transcendentally)...

I cannot describe exactly what I feel nowadays towards my beloved nation. I am patriotic, there is no doubt about that, but this is not blind love. I can SEE a lot, and what I see makes me want to vomit!

Ours is a country who could have sat still and still gained. Every Nepali loves that, we are a pretty lazy bunch anyways, and can be contend with very little. Crushed between two giants, we have had the best that can be had from these massive economies, considering our situation. The cost of existence in Nepal is still comparatively low. I have lived in Ghana in West Africa for the past few years, and the cost of living in a country that produces little and has very little industrialization is very evident, where everything is astronomically expensive. We still have the benefit of open borders, our currency pegged to the Indian Rupee, and a good "understanding" between smugglers and police that releases enough chinese goods to make every citizen happy.

So, it is clear that there was no reason to "have eaten the tail of a goat" (bakhra ko puchhar khane)... if we had just stayed calm, kept ourselves peaceful and patient (you would have thought that we would have learnt a bit from the teachings that came out of Buddha's extreme starvation meditation which brought about enlightenment), we could have benefited a lot from these two 21st century superpowers.... actually, we still can, but we might just have reached the point of no return!

No, but we are Nepalese people, lovers of momo and buffalo meat! I think we have the brain the size of the buffalo meat inside those damn momos! We are lovers of proverbs (like "aphnu khutta ma bancharo hanne") which is exactly what we like to do (wake up countrymen, those proverbs are there for us to learn from them, not prove it!)... So we go forward and prove "lata ko desh ma ganda tanderi", "nepali ko salla kharani ko dalla" and "gu kotaye ganauchha" . How hopeless are we?

I think there will be lots of you who share this sentiment, specially as we get closer and closer to the threshold level of proverbial Nepali patience.

But I do not want to dwell on this. I am out to write about politics and politicians, I am raving mad and I hope I can draw blood!

I cannot believe there can be any other country in this world (OK, which is not ruled by a dictator or a bunch of gun toting teenagers) where a lawmaker, a leader elected by the people to review the laws of the land, can defend attacks on someone else's property and injury to people as a form of "self-defense"..

A country where it takes forever to form a government because the politicians cannot stop squabbling..

A country where mass murderers can become saviors overnight, where criminals with a track record can represent the same people they conducted their crimes on.

Where unions who represent the masses who need employment are out to shut industries or create an environment where industries cannot survive

Where the only education you can get (at least nowadays) is how to burn tires and throw stones at the police and how to bring a country to a standstill.

Where does this come from? I thought we were reasonably smart people, who discovered how to eat "sisnu ko jhol" in case of emergency, learnt how to preserve "saag" by making "gundruk", were talented enough to enjoy and cultivate the art of insta-ballad ("Dohori") etc.. When did we turn from this into sheep, following the lunacy of these politicians who cannot see beyond their own asses, with their heads stuck up you know where...

OK, I cannot continue, at this point I am thoroughly disgusted, my threshold is reached. (let me go and vomit now!)

The Spectacle of Terror

I cannot help watching live telecasts of the so called "War on Mumbai" on the CNN/IBN website. Its live, fast paced journalism, but somewhere I cannot help wondering if the channel is also capitalizing on its newly found popularity. I hear too many words like "exclusive", "our correspondents are tirelessly working", in typical high pitched hyper-fast reporting that is typically Indian... Even on a low volume, it sounds loud for some reason.

So I end up thinking, is this really responsible? A friend of mine in Mumbai, wrote a small note on facebook outlining her feelings at this moment, and tried to put it to perspective. I have to thank her for bringing this to light. You would think that India was under attack at this moment, if you watch the news channels.

It is terrible all right, over 140 people have died so far, and there is no describing the horror of actually being in that situation and having a loved one injured or dead. But do we get the same level of sensationalism and media interest when murder, rape and torture happens in Sudan or the DRC?

picture taken from NYTimes article on Rape Epidemic in Congo

There is a world outcry because it is India, and somehow, India is an important place for the world. India is also loud, and has a presence that can be felt in this world. Sudan and Congo do not have that. Hence, one does not have to be too loud about their feelings towards the atrocities going on there.

I would love to see Michael Moore take on the media in his next movie and their marketing of terror. I hope he still has some energy left, after all his fights!

Trekking back on track!

Going by what is being reported, we might be just back on track, after seven/eight long years of being in the slump. News reports are now showing that the trekking business is rebounding back in giant leaps. Looks like "change" (the big buzzword nowadays in the world) in government was what was required in Nepal too. 

picture courtesy: rajesh k.c www.rajeshkc.com

Even the Khumbu reported choked villages in October, full of trekkers, and situation of not finding accomodation starting to happen. Read this in this Nepalitimes Article. 

It is difficult to say if this is a blessing or a curse. Tourism entrepreneurs who are reading this might have a shine in their eyes, and even have tears of joy (we are back in business! yaaah!) but the trekker who wants to peacefully enjoy his walking holiday will be like, how can I avoid this rush (damn, sounds like mass tourism!)

There is good news for both parties though. And you can read it in that article hyperlinked above, or in the synopsis right here. Some years ago, the idea of a trans Himalayan trekking route, stretching from Pakistan, and including Tibet, Nepal for most of the way, India and Sikkim began to emerge, and was called the Great Himalayan Trail. The idea was to create this trail that would take several months to complete, but would offer options for people to enter at a particular point and exit at another, giving rise to possibilities of several custom trips (and side trips)... this might save the industry in Nepal... creating increased possibilities for both industry professionals and for the clients alike, so that everyone does not have to tread the same ground.

This has multiple benefits of course. The trekking dominated tourism of Nepal, has mostly been limited to the Annapurna Region, the Everest Region and the Lantang Region, in that order. It is not that trekkers do not go to other areas, but few and far between (good for them, but a small critical mass is required for the industry as a whole and the infrastructure to develop). Also, for too long, these three areas have been the only ones to benefit directly form the tourism Dollar (Oops, should I rather say Euro or Pound?) so its high time the rest of Nepal (which is equally if not more beautiful) gets its share too.

Only recently has new routes such as the Chepang Hill Trail (to Chitwan), Renjo La Trail (Everest Region), the Tamang Heritage Trail (Langtang Region), and Nar Phu Valley trips (Annapurna Region) been worked on and marketed. Good news is trekking these new routes can result in (thankfully) smaller number of other trekkers.

Of course, traditional off the beaten trails like Dolpo, Kanchenjunga, Gauri Shankar Area and Humla have always been there and are reasonably developed, but for normal holiday makers with normal budgets, these are a bit expensive.

So, for the benefit of the Nepal Travel Advisory 

ADVISORY: 

1. Time your trek in the beginning or end of the tourism season. This will ensure that the villages are not crowded. You will also do something really responsible by doing this. Help spread the tourism season a bit more. Nepal is still beautiful. So when is this

Spring before season timings: early Feb or late April, May

Fall before season timings: End August or Late November, December

2. Be drastic, and choose to come in summer. Yeah, yeah everyone talks about the monsoon and all, but there are tons of areas in the rain shadow, and trekking in summer can be real real cool up there! Places like Manang, Mustang (ok, thats a bit expensive), Gosainkunda etc, can be real fun. We actually even have a big group coming next year in June - (peak summer/rainy season)to go up to Everest Base Camp, and i tell you, they WILL have a blast!

3. Forget the race to EBC, ABC, Kanjin Gompa, and try some of the Off the Beaten Trails... You will notice a drastic difference in the charm of trekking there.

4. Wait a few years, train a lot, and hit the Trans Himalayan Trail for three months, from Pakistan to the Northeastern border of India.

See you in the mountains!

A nation of contrasts!

It is a day of mixed feelings for me today. Early this morning I got alarm emails from Nepal and the UK concerning the student protests in Kathmandu over the alleged YCL murder / assasination of two youths in a remote district. As stoic Nepalese, we have come to terms that these events are regular normal happenings in Nepal. However, we have clients currently there and their safety is our prime concern. Events such as these always bring the same emotions of hopelessness, sadness, and frustration knowing what potential Nepal has, and how we are effectively throwing it all down a drain.


Later, I read about Subina Shrestha and Dawa Steven Sherpa, and my heart lightened up. Subina is a good friend who was a finalist just last week for the prestigious Rory Peck Award for her outstanding journalism in the Irrawady Delta in Myanmar. She was the first journalist to reach there, posing as a buddhist pilgrim from Nepal.

Dawa Steven Sherpa, a fellow entrepreneur in Nepal, is making us all proud of his innovative conservationist skills, in the world arena. He is only 24, has reached three 8000 + m peaks, Mt. Everest twice... and is a beacon for conservation efforts in mountaineering, and is winning awards right, left and center.

Nepal proves to me more and more regularly, how badly we suck as a country in providing a good environment for the citizens of this country, and how vast the differences are in terms of education, thinking, and understanding of priorities. The students on the streets today are also a proud, fierce lot, but I personally believe that their thinking a bit clouded by the political motives dictated or brainwashed by politicians with ulterior motives, into their young and angry heads. So they go on disrupting live, business, education in the name of change, without realising that they are stomping over their own ingenuity, creativity and potential.

When will Nepal realise that all we have to do is SIT TIGHT. Create a stable country, a stable political environment and sit tight. China and India, in between whom we are fortunately sandwiched, will carry us through!