Help Tourism

Conference / Workshop in Shantiniketan, March 28-29, 2010, Shantiniketan. Bolpur. West Bengal. India.

Conference: Peace through tourism in historically changed cross-borders, Shantiniketan, India, March 2010

A policy workshop for administrators, political leaders, developers, ambassadors, academicians, trade & industry concerns, NGOs, responsible tourism organizations and all concerned for establishing global peace…

Organized by Department of History, Visva Bharati University,
In collaboration with ICRT-India, IIPT, Travel to Care, ACT & Initiated by Help Tourism.

read the full programme

The Green Circuit is an initiative started  in February 2009. It tries to bring together some of the best ‘responsible’ products in the sub-continent together in a circuit, which can then be offered to travellers all around the world. The idea is to make this information known using each others websites and the promotions that we all individualy do, creating a mass awareness of responsible practices, and also generating business for all involved.

It is aimed to become a win win situation where ‘responsible’ operators and products hand hold, share, learn, link (which are all responsible practices in itself) to the betterment of the whole.

With an aim to also make the trip “greener”, we will also support by providing information and service support to connect to these products using train and ground travel. The products are also convieniently developed around international airport, so that access is easy.

Nepal: the Tamang Heritage Trail

17 days, heritage sightseeing, moderate trekking, jungle safari
from £ 675 per person

About 150 years ago, Nepal fought Tibet over salt, and some of the biggest areas where this war took place is in the Langtang Region of Nepal, wherein lies the third most popular trekking trail in Nepal. This area is connected to Tibet and the trails in this region were used by traders from Tibet bartering in Salt and mountain goats for meat (changra) with foodstuffs from the south. Developed by the Tourism for Rural Poverty Alleviation Program, the “Tamang Heritage Trail” is the newly developed tourism product, off the beaten track, which highlights an ancient lifestyle combining it with picturesque scenery and healing baths in natural hot springs.
Read more…

Eastern Himalaya: Red Panda Tea and Elephant Trail

22 days, culture, wildlife and tea gardens
from INR 67,000 per pax nett

East Himalaya is a part of one of the EIGHT HOTTEST BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS of the world. This is a part of the Indo-Burma region. Other then India, the East Himalaya touches the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and West Bengal occupies more than 100,000 sq. kms of East Himalaya approx. which is about 25% of the Indian Himalaya. This shows a major portion of the Himalaya is existent in the East. Similarly, the whole of Nepal and Bhutan are a part of the East Himalaya.
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East India: Orissa Odyssey

15 Days Kolkata – Visakhapatnam
from 980 Euros per person

An epic adventure through timeless India; stretching from the bustle of India’s renown cultural capital Kolkata, through vast tracts of pastoral plains and palm-fringed paddies, to dense mangroves and tranquil boat rides twisting though the tangled mangrove forest of Bhitarkanika National Park. From natural wonders to the irrepressible man-made marvels of ancient India’s earliest temples at Bhubaneshwar and Konark to the sea swept coastal town of Puri, one of India’s Char Dhams (four holy hotspots of Hinduism). Cruise along Chilika Lake, Asia’s largest salt lake lagoon and camp under a starlit sky
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South India – The Malabar Holidays

14 days, culture, spice tour, beaches, homestays
from 815 USD net per person

Malabar was once a British Principality of India. After Independence, Malabar as a state was no longer recognized and the region was divided to form the northern part of what is today called Kerala. Though Malabar has no geographical boundaries, no presence on a map of India, it still exists as a state of mind: laid-back, slow, to live and let live. This is the spirit we capture in this package that begins with Cochin and goes along backwaters, River Nila, Mountains of Wayanad, and ends at the virgin beaches of Kannur in Malabar region.
Read more…

Follow the GREEN circuit on this interactive map:

View Green Circuit, Indian Subcontinent in a larger map

“All roads lead to China border”, the Telegraph today headlined an article reporting that “India is sprucing up its frontier with China by taking up a massive four-year project to connect villages, military posts and towns strung on the border across the Himalayas from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.”Few weeks back the “Maitree-Express” to Dhaka was flagged off from Kolkata as the first passenger railway service between India and Bangladesh since 43 years (article in The Hindu). For the East Himalaya the thaw in the border policy is a great chance and a great support to our this year’s mission “Tracing Traditional Routes through Tourism”.
Entering Tibet from Sikkim via Nathu-La Pass, visiting both the Indian and the Bangladesh Sunderbans as one ecosystem by boat, following the Ledo Stillwell Road through the Mishmi Hills of East Arunachal and crossing the Pangsau-Pass into Burma/Myanmar, entering Manas Nationalpark in India after a visit to Bhutan via the Royal Manas Nationalpark, experiencing the rich heritage of Central Bengal with the lost cities of Pandua and Gaur in West-Bengal on the Indian side and the World Heritage Site of Bagerhat in Bangladesh, or tracing Buddhism from Lumbini in Nepal via Bodh Gaia in India and the Somapura Vihara at Paharpur in Bangladesh before re-entering India in the Tripura, where Buddhism flourished from the 2nd to the 9th century, and many important sites are yet to be explored by tourists. The list could continue without losing any attractiveness given the cultural, religious, ethnic and natural diversity and links that characterize the region.

Eight years back we have promoted the “Destination 2000: East and North East India, Nepal, Bhutan & Bangladesh”, and in 2006 we headlined our efforts “Cross-border Conservation through Community Cooperation”. Now, we feel that our 2008 mission “Tracing Traditonal Routes through Tourism” is a vision increasingly being shared.