Often the discourse of sustainable development revolves around role of different stakeholders and their responsibilities in sustainable growth of tourism destinations. Although operations of each and every tourism practitioner and behavior of travellers hold significant importance, we at Mountain Homestays strongly believe that Tour Operators are t...
Mountain Homestays Contributes to Global Sustainability Goals The world marked the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change in December 2020. It meant we are getting closer to the commitment we made to reduce the global carbon emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Cel...
When life takes you places, make a local house your home! When a community opens its doors and hearts to you, they let you into their most sacred space — their home. Steeped in indigenous culture, their homes are essentially 'built heritage', a legacy of their ancestors. The architecture is an ode to the local landscape and traditional wisdom...
When we think of mountains, we think of adventure, natural beauty, a pleasant climate and peace. It's only when we dig deeper, we begin to understand the lived realities and challenges that the communities here navigate on a day-to-day basis to survive in such harsh regions Ms. Lo Thi Trang, a Muong woman born in 1994, owns a traditional stilt hous...
Tourism has always been an ever-evolving industry, and technological advances have not only changed the way we travel but added a lot to our interactive and exciting travel experience. The blend of technology in the tourism sector has made it more accessible and approachable to the travelers of the age. While planning your vacation now, you'd go on...
How would have the concept of hosting strangers in your house or staying with an unknown family on a vacation sounded a decade back? Hardly anyone would have been comfortable with such a concept. But we have seen people getting comfortable with staying in homestays, using Uber, sharing office spaces, and using many such peer-to-peer platforms. Thes...
Mountain Homestays – An Authentic Mountain Experience Mountain homestays is a community empowerment initiative that focuses on promoting rural destinations by developing homestays in partnership with the locals. The focus is on reaching out to communities living in the remotest parts of the Himalayan belt in India, such as in Ladakh region in north...
With each passing year, the concern for people and the planet is getting stronger more than anything else. So much so that the concern has taken over our news feeds, social media posts, or even our daily conversations. It is surely an elephant in the room that we can’t ignore anymore. Rapid changes in the environment, people’s lives, negative effects of consumerism, everything suggests us to make the right choices. Not just right enough to avoid negative effects, but making sure that right actions are taken for positive impact. When it comes to making travel choices, the scope to create positive impact widens. Just how sustainability discussions are becoming mainstream, taking actions towards making positive impacts would soon become a practice. Make sure you are updated to make right as well as very unique travel choices in 2020. Here is a list of travel experiences that will help you create a positive impact. Relocating orang-utans to a safe location – Indonesia Source: https://impactdestinations.com/destinations/indonesia/?tab=1 Action – This time, have a different reason to visit Indonesia than going for a leisure experience in Bali. The 4 nights experience of relocating orangutans to a safe location would be taken place in Sintang. You will...
Leh-Ladakh is the Himalayan region in the extreme north of India, an area blessed with tremendously beautiful landscapes and clear sky. Seeing the Milky Way with naked eyes is not a big deal here. But in the Spring of 2019, things came together to turn this into a unique attraction of the tourism industry. A lot has been said and written about things to do in Ladakh. Most of them, however, promote only a few places. The reasons behind are the rough terrain, inaccessibility of the locations and lesser information. The promoted list is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of jewels hidden in the cold desert. One such destination is called Maan; the first Astro-village of India. The village is home to a state-of-the-art telescope set up by Global Himalayan Expedition. The villagers conduct a stargazing session every night to promote astronomy in the region. You can watch the moons of the Jupiter, the rings of the Saturn or the entire galaxy (if lucky) from here.In the first week of June, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and Global Himalayan Expedition collaborated to create one unique model of tourism. The model is a classic example of community-tourism where...
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet!” – The quote by William Blake sums up the purposes and motivation for people to keep exploring the mountains. One might be going to mountains to find solitude and other might be going to get connected to new people and communities. There is always a purpose to it. The stronger the purpose, the more the exploration and learning one can bring back from mountains. Seeing the different lifestyles, natural wonders, and achieving new height every day are nothing less than life-changing experiences. Mountains challenge and motivate to conquer much more than one’s believes. Here are some trekking expeditions of 2019 that have a unique purpose to them. These expeditions are not just designed in the beautiful mountain ranges but they take you close to the mountain ecosystem. Seeing and experiencing the destinations with such a unique approach gives an opportunity to know the mountains in the real sense. This develops the stronger connection with and passion for mountains. 1. The Alps – Igloo Expedition, UK Source – https://undiscoveredmountains.com/igloo-expedition-alps Undiscovered Mountains, UK Where - This thrilling igloo expedition takes place in the Southern French Alps, one of the most undiscovered areas of the...
