CONCEPT

In many cases the term responsible tourism is often used for publicity and as a marketing tool. Lot of responsible tourism programmes are floating around and some of them are trying to defining responsible tourism according to their business interests. In this context, the communities we work with defined responsible tourism in the following lines:

• Communities as decision makers (not merely as suppliers for tourists):
  In many responsible tourism programmes the role of local communities are limited merely as suppliers of goods and services to the tourists and hotels. In our programmes local communities are empowered to take decisions which affect them.

• Benefit sharing with local communities:
  We promote ‘Not for profit travel’, but at the same time ensures a fair share of benefits for everybody involved in its activities (value chain), including the holistic development of local communities who are not directly involved in tourism.

• Supplementary income for communities:
  Tourism is seen as an alternative to many of the crises such as crises in the agrarian sector etc. This is not advisable because it is already proven that tourism is one of the most vulnerable economic activities. In this context we consider hosting travellers as an additional income along with farming with very minimal or zero investment.

• Environmental conservation and enhancement:
  The conservation and enhancement of environment is an integral part of any tourism development. Community involvement in tourism offers a great deal of environment protection and enhancement where protecting the environment goes hand-in-hand with protecting the future livelihoods of local communities.

• Placing local people at the centre of cultural exchange.

• Tourism not a development model but a facilitator.