Local Rural Entrepreneurs delivering Globalized Experiential Tourism

   

Small entrepreneurial enterprises always have inherent  advantage when it is about delivering ‘Experiences’ by offering small-scale activities, personalised service and sharing their experiences and local knowledge.  Entrepreneurs with a stake in the local area are being encouraged by government to develop unique small-scale facilities or redevelop rundown facilities (sometimes of unique historical, archeological, artistic, religious, anecdotal or general interest value), such as converting old buiuldings into guest accommodation. In any market cultural discovery is a key travel experience and this is more likely to be delivered by locals than mass tourism providers.

Hosting the Guests and Visitors at Jim Corbett

MC Pandey(right)- A Tourist Guide at Corbett Village

Hosting a guest and delivering a ‘slice-of-life’ provides the visitor with a real memory of a destination and its’ culture.  We met Shri MC Pandey who is a tourist guide at the Corbett Village during our visit to Jim Corbett National Park. A local youth from the area, he amazed us with his intuitive knowledge about the village tourism about what exactly a traveler wants. He actually contextualized UNWTO’s policy of social, economic and environmental sustainability. He said “the youth should come up and take tourism projects so that the burden of economic sustainability is removed from the forests.

Foreign Tourists enjoying the local life and culture of the village

Lifestyle in Homestays

Things to do around the village ( Jungle trailing, Farming Exposure, Team Building Exercises, etc..)

The homestays in the village seemed a little steep in price to us but when we saw the pictures of the happy tourists, we guessed that it was the money well spent. They had a full range of cultural bonanza for the tourists suiting very pocket, right from a group of 10-12 ladies singing and dancing in the traditional attire costing approx 2500 to a traditional drum performance costing about 500. Besides this there were options of bonfire, jungle trail, heritage walk, farming practices exposure, old fashioned storytelling and the like. I was left wondering there is no motivator better than money. The various State Tourism Departments also formulate policies which are proactive for the local youths to become entrepreneurs well rooted with the soil.

Honorable Chairman of Uttarakhand with SBML of Sher Singh at Chaupal

To attract more travelers, clear quality standards should be there to reduce buyer caution and encourage more travelers to incorporate such destinations into their itineraries. How to accurately rate the small nuances that define a host’s ability to deliver a differentiated and quality travel experience is always a daunting task. While the home stays may feel good about offering high standards of quality or implementing sustainability measures in their business, until internationally accepted and promoted standards are applied to the units will be failing to maximize the potential positive benefits.

We at The Other Home have very exacting TOH Bunny who goes and visits such unique properties. He though soft in looks, is very discerning. He scrutinizes the property right from the kitchen to the facilities they offer and then writes his reviews and once he accredit the property the travelers can  rest assured about the quality.

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