I have been in tourism for over 20 years, primarily as a small tour operator (Heritage Tours Orissa). Right from the start, I was focused on small tours that were people, culture, and nature-focused. It was my good fortune that the foreign operators I worked with and the travellers who visited were conscious and focused on responsible and eco-friendly tourism. That is how I learnt about responsible tourism. Plus, I have travelled extensively and so experienced RT as a traveller. I took up courses and understood what it entails. I never wanted to promote mass tourism.

I also realised a lot of people talk about RT. Many mention it on their website, but what product do they have to show for it?

We wanted to show the tourists where their money was going. We wanted to do an experiment and create something that shows how tourism can make an impact. A number of operators conduct "tribal tours," where tourists are taken from one tribal market to another. But nothing is done for the tribal community; they were not benefiting from tourism. We wanted to do things differently, which is how Desia Koraput came about.

Heritage Tours Orissa is the primary entity that I set up in 1997 to offer ethnic, cultural and nature-based tours to travellers. We typically cater to inbound tourists and have built partnerships with many foreign operators. Apart from covering Odisha, we also offer tours in Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Assam and, to a smaller extent, Gujarat.

We list several model itineraries on the site, and travellers can choose from those. But I have found travellers are extremely knowledgeable now and well-read, so they know exactly what they want. We get a lot of special requests based on their interests, and we curate the experiences accordingly.

I have also launched a restaurant in Puri called Wildgrass, which specialises in the cuisines of Odisha. I also run a homestay in Puri. The tour company, restaurant and homestay are my bread and butter. Desia Koraput, in which Heritage Tourism Orissa is a stakeholder, is my passion.

Typically, these are related to learning about specific arts and crafts or focusing on a particular aspect of nature or wildlife. I recently had a group of seniors from Australia. They were artists or were interested in art and wanted a slow travel experience focused on Odisha's art. So we organised art camps where they worked with local artists and learnt the regional traditional artistic styles. When they went to a temple or place of scenic beauty, they would spend many hours painting. This was a very different experience for me.

The Desia concept was in place by 2004-05, but that was a time of socio-political unrest, so we could not start immediately. The actual construction began a few years ago, and Desia has been operational for some time now. The local villagers run Desia. They are trained to take care of guests. We do have managers who are not locals; we need leadership to help the locals scale up to the next level. Travellers staying in Desia get to experience authentic rural Odisha life. They go on village and nature walks, explore the rural countryside, participate in craft learning sessions conducted by local and tribal artisans, go to the markets, buy produce and then learn how to cook them in the local style, attend local festivals and witness rituals—the list is endless. We curate the experiences depending on the guest’s interest and length of stay.

There have been numerous challenges—the remote location, lack of skilled on-location leadership, infrastructural issues etc. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. To solve the leadership challenge, we got someone from France for a year-long project on the ground. That has worked well. To deal with power cuts, we moved to solar energy.

We are proud to have changed the lives of many. Desia directly employs local people. We run a preschool where the students get a good foundation and typically do well in their studies. Indirectly too, the community has benefited. Some locals have bought cars that they run as taxis for the tourists that come here regularly.

In the off-season, we like to take some of the local community members who work with us on tours to Puri, Bhubaneswar and other places to show them what travel is all about. We also plan to sponsor local kids for foreign language courses. We are also getting artists to paint our school buildings.

Longer term, we want to replicate this model. We now know the Desia model works and what needs to be done. In the future, we would like to launch more projects.

The State Forest Department’s Eco-Tourism initiatives have been outstanding. This has ensured more tourists travel to forest areas in a manner that benefits the local communities. Like elsewhere, in Odisha too, the responsible tourism conversations have started picking up. Obviously much more needs to be done. There is a lot of potential. The focus needs to be on planned and conservation-based tourism before the local environment—cultural and ecological—gets damaged. This is the right state to promote and create awareness about RT, and the time is also suitable.

For more information visit, desiakoraput.com

(Disclaimer: This article is published in association with Odisha Tourism)