Many in the tourism industry believe that demand for rural tourism will only grow as travellers seek to rejuvenate from the stresses of modern life. The belief is travellers will look for less crowded destinations that will also offer them meaningful experiences and rural tourism fits these requirements.
How are the communities you work with reacting? From your experience, do you believe these communities, which are in rural areas, will be more resilient as they are not entirely dependent on tourism?
The communities are very understanding. We have maintained our basic aim of keeping tourism as a supplementary source of livelihood for all the participating communities and since the income is distributed widely, there is no concentration of income in fewer families, thereby reducing risk of over dependence.
What plans are you putting in place: for your team currently, to keep morale of employees and the communities high and to keep them engaged and linked to the larger world?
We all agreed that we need to phase out our activities and review things from time to time. We also agreed that we need to think step by step dealing with one problem at a time rather than thinking about all the consequences now and trying to find solutions to everything.
Keeping team members positively engaged - We have started a few social media campaigns like a photo competition for our staff, guides, local drivers and community team members and they are getting an opportunity to appreciate the glimpses of nature around them. Also soon, we are starting with a 'keep in touch' campaign linking guests and the villages.
We are in touch with our team members and are continuing with the work that we usually do during the off-season. Our sales team members work virtually and they are connected by phones and email, so they are working on product reviews and pricing. We are particularly focused on holiday products that will suit our domestic market. We are already receiving enquires from domestic travellers.
How do you think the Covid pandemic impacted tourism as a whole in India and Responsible Tourism in particular?
The pandemic has impacted everything, and tourism was one of the worst hit. Time is crucial and whilst everyone in tourism business is prepared for a short term crisis, Covid’s impact will be seen over a longer time.
Responsible Tourism businesses in particular should expect to recover sooner. It will surely be a gradual process for travellers returning to mainstream travel, particularly inbound, and small enterprises and operators can possibly manage to survive even if small income that gradually increases starts trickling.
What should the RT community and policymakers focus on?
For the RT community, at this time, the focus should be on collaborations with each other for experience sharing as well as for marketing. This will help to reassure travellers in terms of basic standards as well as for benefit sharing policies.
With regards to policy making, this is very good time to introduce any new policies/ changes and the RT community could come out with suggestions collectively. As per our experiences, there is much help needed for training on things like first aid, hygiene and sanitation, emergency procedures, evacuation etc, as these trainings are best provided by government and they can also endorse it formally and this helps customers to feel safe.
Many believe that post pandemic, travellers prefer to travel to rural regions that are inherently less crowded. Do you feel so and do you have any concerns? How should travel companies and communities prepare for this?
Our gentle form of tourism will certainly not diminish and should have the ability to grow following this experience.
If the preferences of travellers shift significantly to offbeat locations and rural areas, these being less crowded, it will mean that the responsibility of those of us working in rural regions will also increase, so we need to also prepare for that aspect. The preparation mainly lies in creating accommodation capacities that are manageable for communities and in ensuring that tourism activities do not disturb local life in a negative way.
We work very closely with our team members and our field teams (from the villages) are closely connected to the village communities, so from time to time, we will be reviewing the situation and will prepare ourselves as things move. We have good team coordination as we operate holidays in different regions and this will help us immensely.
What are the lessons of this crisis for you and for the industry?
The Covid crisis has given us a chance to review many aspects of our work and we feel that we must work much harder on domestic market. The other learning, as a company, is not to be over dependent on income coming from sale of holidays alone. We must diversify the sources of income for the company to be able to face any such crisis in a better way.
There is a good learning from every crisis and, as the RT community if we all come together to create some common policies and boundaries, it will help create a positive and responsible environment for all tourism practitioners. We also should make the most of this time and continue to work on aspects of our work that needs to be improved or changed. I have personally been involved in the social media side of our work and I must say it has been an interesting and learning experience. This is the best time to take views and suggestions from your team members and this can be immensely helpful to come back stronger.
All the positives of an RT approach to tourism remain strong and I think a strong future focus should be on respect for the places we visit, that is to say respect for our hosts’ social, environmental and physical structures.