Press Release | Nepal is building-back-better for autumn 2015 tourist arrivals

source: www.humanitarianresponse.info

Kathmandu, 15 June 2015 - Major reconstruction work and in-depth assessments are underway in Nepal to build-back-better and get the Himalayan nation ready for the upcoming tourist season.

The two earthquakes that shook parts of Nepal on 25 April and 12 May 2015 have brought damage to 14 of the 75 districts of the country, and even though the devastation is extensive in some regions, many areas remain relatively unscathed and are fit for tourists to visit in autumn 2015.

“Our nation is working hard to make Nepal a safer place,” says the founder director of socialtours - Raj, who has been in the industry for more than a decade. “The tourist district Thamel has been relatively unaffected. Damaged hotels are getting a full structural assessment and are being restored to an even better condition than before.” Under the assessment project, engineers have marked safe buildings with a green sticker and started demolishing those deemed unsafe in and around the Kathmandu Valley.

Damaged sites, such as the historic Kathmandu Durbar Square, have partly been reconstructed and opened for tourists on 15 June. The main roads and air transport links are operational and life is getting back to normal in many areas. “Nepal is a wonderful country and one of the best qualities of the Nepali people is their hospitality. They are very resilient and are working hard to get their country back on the international tourism agenda,” says Katja Staartjes, a Dutch mountaineer and a Goodwill Ambassadors to aid tourism, emphasising the need for this source of income to return to the country.

Many trekking areas have seen little damage and, if the monsoon rains do not trigger landslides in these areas, trekking will be as safe as it was before the quake. “Apart from Langtang, Rolwaling and Manaslu, we do not see much of a problem with other trails, such as the Everest Base Camp Trek,” says Swiss geologist Erwin Scheibert, who is assessing the routes in the affected areas for the Local Road Improvement Programme (LRIP) in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP).

Other places further in the west, such as the popular wildlife parks Chitwan and Bardia, the lakeside town of Pokhara and the much-visited Annapurna trekking region have also escaped widespread damage, and are ready for visitors to showcase their abundance of natural beauty and wildlife. Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini, did not suffer damage and is thankfully all set to welcome visitors back to its sacred soil.

Tourism is a big contributor to the Gross Domestic Product of the Himalayan nation, directly supporting almost 500,000 jobs in 2014. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) this figure was due to rise to almost 700,000 in the coming ten years. “With tourists not coming to Nepal even more people will be forced to leave the country, which will be devastating for the future of our country,” Gyawali continues.

The Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS) says that around 2.2 million Nepalis, which constitutes about 10 per cent of the population, have opted to leave the country to work abroad in order to provide the necessary means to feed their families.

For more information, please contact - NepalTourismRecovery@groups.facebook.com 
- or visit www.facebook.com/groups/NepalTourismRecovery

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the socialtours pitch – ITB Asia & WTM 2012

Based in Kathmandu, Nepal, socialtours is a highly innovative, soft adventure specialist offering a range of products from trekking and soft adventure trips to special interest travel, village stays and volunteering. Working with local communities, the company strives to provide the clients with locally distinctive, value-added travel experiences that help promote and preserve Nepal's rich cultural and ecological diversity.

Socialtours has been five times nominee for the Responsible Travel Awards in the UK and featured in National Geographic Adventure and Lonely Planet. It has also been listed amongst four other companies as the best sustainable tourism companies in Nepal in a UNWTO publication in 2012. Since its foundation in 2002 socialtours has constantly worked to develop new and innovative products into the market.

At ITB Asia and World Travel Market 2012, socialtours is coming with its set of innovative products and looking for industry partners wishing to expand their product base and working with a local partner who understands their markets and will help them constantly keep the market interest dynamic, through active product expansion, creativity and dedication to excellence in delivery.

Why talk to socialtours?

For over 10 years, socialtours has been honing its skills in delivery, understanding of markets and customers, and going deeper and deeper into Responsible Tourism practice. Partners stand to gain from this sort of expertise on the ground, enhancing their profiles through excellent reviews on trips, value addition through the real practice of responsible tourism on the ground, and dynamic changes in offers through an ever expanding product base. Socialtours does not only work in delivery excellence, but works together as partners.

Our OFFERS in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan & India

The experiences promoted by the company fall under distinct categories

GO LOCAL | Discover Hidden Secrets

In 2011 socialtours launched the Go Local activities, a new initiative to discover hidden secrets only locals know. The objective of these short tours is to give travellers richer, deeper and out of the ordinary experiences into culture, while at the same time making a positive impact on the local communities and environment. These tours have become extremely popular.

A very popular product in this series is Cook like a local, which gives a chance to learn typical Nepali dishes.  The course has been featured in Lonely Planet and has received spectacular reviews.

Splice of Kathmandu is the newest addition to the Go Local series and complements the cooking class. The tour leads through the local Ason markets, a wonderful place to plunge into the aromas and tastes of spices, herbs, vegetables, utensils, the traditional clothing and wholesale markets. The purpose of this tour is to discover the heart of Kathmandu. 

Since 2011 socialtours has engaged in cultural preservation experiences conducting an exotic 20 course Newar feast called Vo'ye. The driving force of this event is to revive the unique Newar, culturally sensitive tradition and prevent degradation of culture by organizing the feast every year during the Kumari / Indra Jatra festival. 

GET ACTIVE | Soft adventuresupported by professionals

This category encompasses a number of activities ranging from trekking to white water rafting through paragliding to jungle safari. Here socialtours strives to push travellers into off beat and community based initiatives, thereby helping spread the benefits of tourism into areas where they usually do not reach.

Communityeco-lodge trek is an off the beaten track trek into the ever popular Annapurnas, with eco-lodge stays benefitting community based tourism.

A Responsible Peak is an educational tour on the intricacies of practice of responsible tourism, and takes people on a homestay based trek and combines it with a twist on the ever popular Jungle Safari.

Socialtours is also working on developing a range of cultural shorter products on the slowly popularising Great Himalaya Trail, striving to reach areas that other treks do not, thereby helping get the spread done there.

GETIMMERSED | Special Interest Travel

The series has been established to create enriching experiences for the customers with special interest. Highly tailor made, each trip in this series focuses on a particular cultural or environmental experience.

Crop to Cup is a Coffee tour developed for the coffee connoisseurs to experience the high quality, organic coffee grown in Nepal. The tour shows all the steps of coffee production and ends in tasting this wonderful product.

Dancing with Shamans is a monsoon trek that goes to a high mountain lake in the August Full Moon to experience apprentice shaman turn into full shaman in a yearly high altitude festival.

The Red Panda Watch is a trip into high altitude herder communities to stay with them and utilise their skill in tracking the elusive Red Panda.

GET INVOLVED | Voluntourism & Philanthropic Travel

This series resolves around the concept of volunteering and charity tours that has been one of the core strengths of the company right from the start.

For the second time this year Socialtours has co-organized Kathmandu Kora Cycling Challenge. The aim of this event is to bring together riders from Nepal and abroad to participate in 50 kilometre cycling challenge around Kathmandu Valley, raising money per kilometre biked for development. In 2012, the challenge brought together about 300 riders and raised money for upgrading birthing centers in a remote district. The fund rising target of NRs 500,000 was exceeded by 180%. The event proved to be highly successful.

The Everest and Annapurna Base Camp trek Challenges raise money per meter climbed to benefit causes which are vetted by Save the Children and implemented via the philanthropic arm of socialtours, Karma Foundation.

 GREEN CIRCUIT | the best eco-products in the Indian Sub-Continent

Since 2009, socialtours has started a regional initiative called the Green Circuit, aimed at bringing together responsible operators in the sub-continent. This has bought together award winning organisations in an effort to join forces to learn together, market together and put up a bigger front in the market.

The Green Triangles of India & Nepal brings together the popular triangles in India and Nepal in a heady mix of responsible experiences in these two countries. The cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur are combined with Kathmandu, Pohkara and Chitwan shown in a new perspective, which makes a responsible alternative to mass tourism.

The RT AUDIT | Leading Responsible Tourism Practice

Socialtours was one of the first companies in Nepal to develop a policy for responsible tourism, outlining a set of principles to adhere to in order to respect local people and environment, and to contribute into the local economy. It has committed itself to integrating tourism with social development.

Based on the formats and systems set by Responsible Tourism Reporting, an initiative spearheaded by Jenefer Bobbin and Prof. Harold Goodwin, socialtours has for the second time completed the report on sustainability performance. The report shows in detail how the company gets on in the key areas of social, economic and environmental responsibility. It also sets the targets for the next year.

Contact Raj Gyawali, founder director via email at raj@socialtours.com and via phone at +43 66 47 35 33 48 3.
 … or visit our website @ www.socialtours.com

*end* | 21^st Sep - Kathmandu, Nepal

Whats in a Feast?

Since 2011, socialtours has been engaging in conducting an exotic Newar feast, along with our partners Powerful Hands, with whom we engage in cultural preservation experiences. This is scheduled to happen each year during the Kumari / Indra Jatra and is slowly being developed to be the FEAST of the YEAR.

We felt the need to explain why a travel company is so excited about this feast, and why the whole office and our partners are working hard to make it a success.

Simply explanation is that we love (did I already say love) Newar food, and love the 'exoticness' (if thats a word; must be, because my computer seems to accept it!) of the traditional sit down 'Lapte'. Unfortunately, we do not get invited to many anymore, and there is a reason for it. It is slowly disappearing from the regular 'feast' scene in Kathmandu, replaced by the ease of the rather 'boring' "Chinese food on one side and Indian on the other" type feasts that catering companies are good at.

Its a shame, because the Newar tradition is so unique, and amazingly 'green', 'organic', 'culturally sensitive', 'exotic' and above all, pure fun.

So, this is our thinking. If we can bring the fun back to the traditional sit down, glamourise it a bit, change the ambience, we might have started a small revival of sorts, or if that is not possible, at least slowed down the degradation of culture by just a little bit.

This year, its happening on the 30th of September, 2012 (sunday) on the second day of the Kumari / Indra Jatra in Basantapur, right on the route of the Kumari, in front of the Taleju temple.

So do come by, enjoy the food, lovingly prepared by the Ma Pucha of Lagan Tole, realising that you are also playing a small part in the preservation of this wonderful food culture. There will be over 20 different varieties of food, and free flow traditional alcohol - of course.

See you on the 30th.

Press Release: Responsible Tourism Events in the Spotlight at ITB Berlin 2012

Kathmandu, Nepal – 23 February 2012 | At ITB Berlin 2012 socialtours and its sustainable partners will get together to present the latest innovations in responsible travel.

Raj Gyawali, Founder and Managing Director of socialtours, will give a presentation on the GO LOCAL | Insider Tours on Friday, 9 March at 13.00h in Hall 4.1b, ITB Eco & Adventure Stage. The popular series includes an amazing collection of tours from cooking courses to village walks and learning to make paper from elephant dung. The GO LOCAL series will even take you on cross-border tours – for example the Green Triangles of India and Nepal to explore the two countries from a responsible perspective.

This year socialtours will partner with the Blue Yonder and the Green Circuit to feature a series of Responsible Travel Clinics during the trade visitors days 7-9 March, where experts will share their experiences in building sustainable tourism businesses. Topics include social media for destination promotion, power of story telling, moving beyond conventional tourism and power of networking. All the clinics will take place in Hall 4.1/201 at the Blue Yonder stand. Please contact us for a more detailed schedule of these events.

The annual Responsible Networking Event on Friday, 9 March at 17:30h in Hall 4.1 will provide a perfect opportunity to get connected, interact and listen to inspiring stories from destinations as well as short pitches from responsible tourism initiatives around the world.

About us

socialtours | nepal is an award-nominated, National Geographic Adventure and Lonely Planet recommended soft adventure specialist based in Nepal covering Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and India, offering local, active, immersive and involving experiences tailor-made to individual requirements.

The Blue Yonder, recipient of Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards and prestigious First Choice Responsible Tourism Award is a pioneering and most innovative travel company promoting sustainable and responsible travel in India.

The Green Circuit is an initiative to bring together the best responsible tour operators in the Indian sub-continent.

For more information, please email raj@socialtours.com. During the week of 6-11 March 2012, please call +43 664 73533483. 

Press Release: GO LOCAL | Insider Tours: Discover Hidden Secrets of Nepal Only Locals Know

Kathmandu, Nepal – 23 February 2012 | With the GO LOCAL series socialtours now combines a soft adventure tour with an insider's view of Nepal, giving the traveller memorable and meaningful experiences to fulfill their holiday.

Socialtours launched the GO LOCAL | Insider Tours last year. The popular series now includes cooking courses, pottery classes, organic farm stays, coffee farm visits, village walks, cycling tours, watching a city wake up, learning the process of converting elephant dung into paper - an amazing collection of experiences to give an insight into the culture, people and nature of Nepal.

The GO LOCAL series will even take you on cross-border tours – for example the Green Triangles of India and Nepal to explore the two countries from a responsible perspective.

At ITB Berlin 2012 Raj Gyawali, Founder and Managing Director of socialtours, will give a presentation on the GO LOCAL series on Friday, 9 March at 13.00h in Hall 4.1b, ITB Eco & Adventure Stage.

All the tours are fully customized to meet time requirements and special interests of the traveller. They are ideal for families and people on a short visit to Nepal and can take place both in Kathmandu and Pokhara, highlighting the cities’ hidden secrets only known to locals. A well-trained, local guide will accompany each tour.

For those inspired, socialtours GO LOCAL series is a perfect way to explore deeper into the rich cultural heritage of Nepal and discover something new and out of the ordinary.

About socialtours | nepal

socialtours | nepal is an award-nominated, National Geographic Adventure and Lonely Planet recommended soft adventure specialist based in Nepal, covering Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and India, offering local, active, immersive and involving experiences tailor-made to individual requirements.

For more information or to schedule a meeting in Berlin, please email raj@socialtours.com.

During the week of 6-11 March 2012, please call +43 664 73533483.