India village vacation, forest and fables

Planet

We work with our partner communities in many ways to promote sustainable environmental practices, providing training and, where necessary, funding to help them. We encourage respect for and raise awareness of the local environment among both villagers and tourists We have a network of regional coordinators who help local communities and ensure that training is relevant and fulfilling. We encourage all guesthouses to use green energy supplies, by installing solar panels for water heating and using solar lamps inside. We ask guests to use water filtered by their hosts to avoid bringing in unnecessary plastic bottles. We train local guides to identify local birds and animals, and encourage communities to see wildlife as a precious asset rather than a nuisance. We have also encouraged communities to dispose of household rubbish in sustainable ways, and guides go into local schools to promote this. We encourage communities to look after the landscapes, which can be seen by them as an asset for guests who come to walk and appreciate the environment.
We aim to make environmental considerations a critical element of all economic decisions at all levels . Through the village tourism committees we will educate on such vital matters as pollution (especially litter), energy saving and water collection.

People

Our style of community tourism is a true partnership with the host communities, and led to our winning Best for the Local Economy in the 2013 World Responsible Tourism Awards. Together with the communities, we build the guesthouses and the necessary infrastructure to provide memorable guest experiences.
It is important that the income created through these tourism enterprises is real but supplementary to traditional livelihoods. With more than 20 years experience we are confident that we have had real effect on out-migration and have brought a solid, secondary income stream to the villages. Recognized since 2017 as a leader in Responsible Tourism, in 2021 we won our fourth global Responsible Tourism award for ‘growing economic benefit within the villages We train local people to be guides or cooks, and ensure that a village committee is formed to administer the enterprise and to ensure equitable distribution of income. We have brought over voluntary language teachers to teach English and, more recently, French. We encourage villages to give financial assistance throughout the communities according to need, and we make sure that anyone working for the enterprises is paid a fair wage. We are also instituting a system of independent audit to monitor the enterprises and the benefits they bring. Guests are seen as bringing real benefits, and so are welcomed warmly. We provide our guests with comprehensive background information that helps them to understand the communities and appreciate their cultures. Our local guides are encouraged to take guests to local artisans and markets, something which is much appreciated. Typically a village-owned guesthouse is at the center of the enterprise – if you like – a form of ‘home-stay’ offered by the whole village.