Local Travel sets its sights on becoming a key trend in 2010

April 7, 2010 – In mid-March, the Local Travel Movement trumpeted a call to people and organisations with a passion for local travel and commitment to local travel values. The promising early reverberations of this new, international, free-to-join movement have already inspired more than 40 organisations to join a growing list of partners at www.LocalTravelMovement.com.

The Local Travel Movement was initiated by a core coalition of people from companies that believe Local Travel is greater than the sum of its parts. The Local Travel Movement is now already a rallying point through which, by working together, Local Travel companies can help give locals a real voice, engage travellers and develop a stronger ethical dialogue within the travel industry.

Given the diversity of partner companies, the Local Travel Movement is not overly descriptive. Rather than define ‘local travel,’ the Local Travel Movement simply places value on an approach to travel that is mindful of local people, the local environment, local culture and the local economy. It proposes four easy steps to becoming a local traveller:

• connecting with local people before, during and after a trip
• travelling in a manner that is sensitive to the local environment
• respecting local heritage and culture
• spending money locally.

While these actions may seem self-evident, the Local Travel Movement prioritises this conscious and conscientious shift in attention to the direct connection between visitor and local host. For travellers it's a chance to get under a place's skin (and let it under theirs), while also making the most of their travel time and saving money by spending locally. For host communities, it is vital for enforcing the beneficial qualities of tourism, maximising a general awareness of the local culture and minimising 'leakage' from the local economy.

The partners of the Local Travel Movement believe now is the time to embrace, develop, promote and establish Local Travel as the responsible way forward in tourism.


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For more information and interviews, please contact:
Ethan Gelber, WHL Group (www.whl-group.com), ethan@whl.travel
Bart van Poll, Spotted by Locals (www.spottedbylocals.com), bart@spottedbylocals.com

Tibet re-opened!

Tibet has been re-opened for travel. Anyone is thinking to do a nice Tibet tour, can plan for it now. The best time of course is from about April to October. We promote two trips and a third one is on the drawing boards

The Road to Lhasa - a 8 day drive in fly out, or fly in drive out trip to Lhasa, which gives you healthy overdoses of the magnificent landscapes of the Tibetan Plateau and Buddhism.

Trip to the Center of the Universe, Mt. Kailash - a 14 day land journey which also includes a hiking Kora - a circumbulation of this beautiful mountain, a religious site for Buddhists, Hindus and Jains alike.

Find these trips here

The one on the drawing board is another of socialtours initiatives in working together (we are working with a local agency in Humla (the remote western district in Nepal bordering the Mt. Kailash Region in Tibet), who will run a six-day trek in the remotest parts of Nepal before reaching the border, crossing over, driving to Mt. Kailash and then exiting through a road border near Kathmandu. This will give you the best of both worlds, compacted in a approximately, 21 day journey!

Well, basically giving you a heads up to start planning Tibet again!

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!

Photo Essay: Trekking Langtang in Nepal

Photo Essay: Trekking Langtang in Nepal

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An Astonishing Trip to Nepal - Results in 3 Life Changing Lessons

Taken from an article @ www.yotran.com written by Walter Bauens.

After traveling to South & North India beginning 2010 we (my wife Viviane & I) arrived at Kathmandu February 23^th for a tailor made trip. A Yotran Travel Your Dreams excursion. To Learn More Click Here.

It included learning from the Nepalese culture, challenging our own life’s and beliefs and having fun with spiritual & Yoga experiences. We had three weeks; we kept the initial days formal with our local Yotran partner, had a tentative schedule and then sat down and decided what to do. I personally suffered already from the famous bacteria, which caused severe diarrhea, a typical phenomenal when you travel through those countries.

• Step 1: Go to a Tibetan Doctor and get healthy again
• Step 2: Experience a guided heritage trip through Kathmandu
• Step 3: Have unique local Yoga experiences and meet local people to exchange ideas
• Step 4: Plan the trek of 8 days through the Himalaya (Helambu & Langtang region) with maximum height of 4.700 m (15,000 feet)
• Step 5: Check your physical condition with an ayurvedic doctor and get a customized diet for our trekking
• Step 6: Do meet the astrologist to challenge and understand your luck by the philosophy of the stars
• Step 7: Warm up with a trial Hike Day to be prepared with an in depth briefing at the end for all practical issues of the trekking.

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