Help Tourism

Dear Traveller,

for more than 02 decades, people who travelled through us not only brought peace and relaxation to themselves, but also gave a better life to the destinations where they travelled. Without your visits and your valuable feedback we wouldn’t have been able to create and sustain all those new initiatives that came up since.

The 2012-2021 Mission has no logo yet. We have sent out a request to our friends and partners in the destinations to visualise their idea of “responsible footprints”. Who but them knows best what responsible travel means for a place. Then its your call to vote for your favorite logo.

Stay updated about the online gallery and the public voting

For the last one decade we have also followed with great attentiveness the warnings about how our travels have added to carbon footprints and climate change. We are aware that our travel does have an impact, especially if we have to use airplanes. But we feel that a great travel experience should not focus on the guilt of travellers. Tourism is a powerful tool for rural development, social upliftment and empowerment of the local people. Not that everything always was at its best, sometimes because of more greed at destinations the sustainability factor has been cut short. Yet we are proud of the many positive examples for the benefits of tourism. Those examples we want to highlight and built upon.

If you did not travel, you wouldn’t have understood this land or brought benefits for the people here. We all from the Help Tourism family want to thank you for this important support. We have thought of dedicating this decade 2011 to 2021 to Swami Vivekananda, the wandering monk, who through his travels understood this land and connected it to the world. He often said that it is because of his travels, he has found the meaning of his life and accordingly dedicated himself for mankind. He has left ‘responsible footprints’.

We at Help Tourism after dedicating the 1^st one decade in understanding the philosophy of travel, dedicated the next decade to several missions to establish that tourism can do only good, if we can create opportunities. This decade we want to make travel more meaningful for you, help you in choosing ‘responsible footprints’. We have finally realised that it is only you, the traveller, who through your travels can make this world a better place to live in and visit.

Dated the First of January, 2012.   Help Tourism Family

The annual missions:

2000, Visit East Himalaya, East & Northeast India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh

The 2000 mission was followed by

2011 was one of the most important years for Help Tourism Family, where we could directly show to the world the social, cultural and environmental betterment brought about by tourism volunteers. This has given us the confidence to partner with you, the traveller, to dedicate a decade to Responsible Travel.

Help Tourism’s  2009-2010 annual mission “Tourism for Peace” got unexpected attention. Tourism researchers included Help Tourism’s Sunderbans project and the Gurungs’ Tinchuley homestay in a good practice case study collection. Their paper examines the synergistic linkages among alternative forms of tourism and the establishment of long term peace.

Case Study 2: An Inspiring Example of Wildlife Conservation

… Though the local community in The Sunderbans has been traditionally respectful of the tigers,  there  have  been  confrontations  between  humans  and  the  big  cats  in  recent  times due  to  various  factors.  But  with  the  initiatives  of  some  enterprising  locals  and organisations  like  the  Forest  Department,  The  Sunderbans  Tiger  Project,  the  Wildlife Protection  Society  of  India  (WPSI)  and  Help  Tourism,  tiger  conservation  efforts  were encouraged  among  the  local  community  members  and  The  Sunderbans  has  become  an extraordinary case of wildlife protection in India (Biswas, 2008 ; Hui, 2009).  
The Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society (BNWCS) based in the Bali Island of The Sunderbans is one of the initiatives which have promoted sustainable development with the help of local participation. The Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society is led by Anil Kumar Mistry (principal field officer), a poacher-turned-conservationist and an  enterprising  local  responsible  for  carrying  out  campaigns  like  the  Bagh  Bachao?  or „Save  the  Tiger?  in  motivating  locals  towards  tiger  conservation  (Hui,  2009).  [...]
Promoting The Sunderbans as an ecotourism destination, the Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation  Society  runs  a  10-cottage  ecotourism  complex  in  association  with  Help Tourism, a group that runs sustainable tourism projects in eastern India. This ecotourism complex is part of a tourism project called The Sunderbans Jungle Camp, a community-driven  initiative  and  it  is  credited  with  providing  jobs,  directly  and  indirectly,  for  a number  of  local  people  (Hui,  2009;  Biswas,  2008).  It  is  also  supported  by  WWF-India (West Bengal State Office), the Department of Forests (Government of West Bengal), and the Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) – a non-profit organisation (Biswas,  2008). The complex adjoins a small agricultural settlement, embedded between river and paddy  fields.  The  construction  follows  traditional  patterns  and  uses  local  materials. Several  guided  excursions  and  boat  trips  to  the  forests  and  the  nearby  villages  can  be arranged  by  locals  according  to  the  visitors’  preferences.  Today  the  complex  is  run  by local people almost independently (Gotliffe, 2007; Biswas, 2008 ; Hui, 2009 ; Roy, 2008).
Local social projects, such as an evening school, free medical camps, book and garment banks and scholarships, are supported with revenue from tourism. In the 2007 „Tourism for Tomorrow? Awards in London, organized by the WTTC (World Tourism and Travel Council), The Sunderbans Jungle Camp was one of the award winners in the category of „Investor in People? (Hui, 2009). 
The efforts of the Bali Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society, through projects like The  Sunderbans  Jungle  Camp,  have  led  to  the  fostering  of  peace,  harmony  and  co-existence  between  man  and  wildlife  in  the  Indian  Sunderbans.  The  Sunderbans  Jungle Camp  project  is  an  idyllic  example  of  community-based  tourism  that  protects  the endangered  Bengal  Tigers  while  giving  locals  a  sustainable  alternative  livelihood  (Hui, 2009). According to officials of The Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve , a study conducted by  The  Wildlife  Institute  of  India  for  IUCN  (International  Union  for  Conservation  of Nature and Natural Resources) judged The Sunderbans to be the „best managed park? in the country? (Biswas, 2008).

in: The Journal of Tourism and Peace Research, 1(1), 2010, pp. 27-41, Sudipta Kiran Sarkar and Babu P George, Peace Through Alternative Tourism: Case Studies From Bengal, India.
The full paper is avaiable for download: http://www.icptr.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Peace-through-Alternative-Tourism.pdf

“With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion.” 

The year 2010 has been very special for Help Tourism as the organization completed its 20 years in Responsible Tourism. It was indeed an eventful journey punctuated by joy and sorrow. We salute all the members of the team and extended family of Help Tourism and our guests and partners who gave us support and sustenance. We take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to conservation and communities by practicing tourism as the religion of mankind. 

Despite many challenges the organization successfully launched several new initiatives, projects and programmes in 2010. 

The WTD (World Tourism Day) Yatra was a grand success with several very fruitful programmes in Dhaka and Paharpur to connect the heritages of Bangladesh and India. The Indian delegation was lead by internationally famous filmmaker Goutam Ghosh. 

Two Peace Parks were established in 2010: Guru Padmasambhava Peace Park in Ultapani in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam and Lalon Fakir Peace Park in Chilapata in North Bengal. 

The annual Nature and Community festival at Chilapata witnessed record attendance of all the local and regional stakeholders. 

The Samsing Jaldhaka Orange Festival  received overwhelming response with more than 5000 participants who presented a spontaneous and spectacular show for two days and mesmerized the audience and guests. 

The ‘Waste-free Destinations’ campaign continued in 2010 with enthusiastic participation of the local grass route NGOs, travel trade, local traders, lodges and home stay operators, Forest department and local administration in Manas Biosphere Reserve in Assam. 

With generous support from the state Forest and Tourism departments, Help Tourism introduced full-fledged nature-based and cultural tours in Tripura. 

We along with our Nagaland team leader Angulie Meyase assisted celebrity birders Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, S.Ramakrishnan, Bano Haralu and Government of Nagaland in conducting the first systemic Ornithological survey in Nagaland. 

We also supported the research and photo-documentation projects in Bengal and Northeast India for the publication of the book named Forts and Palaces of India published by Om Books International, written by Amita Baig and designed by Alpana Khare with photographs by Joginder Singh. 

An extensive training programme was organized by us at The Swiss Hotel, Darjeeling for the Project Leaders of nature-based rural tourism initiatives in East and Northeast India. 35 Project Leaders received training on hospitality basics, rural tourism management and operations, community based tourism, adventure tourism, waste management and conservation of natural resources. 

Help Tourism received the prestigious “HSBC-TOFT Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year” award. Our Dihing River Camp was awarded “The Most Innovative Tourism Product” at the 80th TTF (Travel and Tourism Fair) in Kolkata. 

The modern India is emerging as the second largest growing economic power in the world though sadly, despite the strong economic growth, huge domestic capacity and service potential, India still witnesses alarming disparity between the rich and poor and poverty and backwardness in the rural areas where the communities are ready to sprout with even a little encouragement and support. Tourism in general too has still a long way to walk to take a turnaround and recognize Responsible Tourism as a key to reduce the disparity and drive conservation efforts and help communities to establish their ownership on local resources. 

To much to our delight, a new Mantra of Responsible Tourism is increasingly proving its worth as a level maker by poverty alleviation and bringing valuable resources and benefits to the rural communities. Volun-Tourism as it is commonly known is the demonstration of the noble way of sharing and exchanging knowledge and resources between the guests and the hosts and giving maximum back to the people and destination while enjoying an inspirational holiday experience. It opens up the global door through the local window. 

Based on the need of the local communities in the destinations and the various skills possessed by the Volun-Tourists, Help Tourism has introduced well-researched and custom-made Volun-Tourism holidays and projects in several villages in East & Northeast India over the years and has already gained the trust and confidence of the communities. 

Through our projects and tours Volun-Tourists have been able to cut across all geographical, language and cultural barriers and have adopted villages lying adjacent to the Protected areas and Heritage sites – from the mangroves of Sunderbans to the remote mountains in Mishmi hills and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, from the tropical forest of Bengal Dooars and Assam to the high altitude ecosystem in Neora Valley and Sikkim,  by bringing support to various important fields such as education, self-help enterprises, sustainable bio-farming, low cost and pollution free energy, rain water harvesting, medical assistance, small-scale handicraft business, organic food product, waste management, home-hospitality business, wildlife conservation, creation of community buffer forest and biological corridors; documentation of indigenous culture, language and folklores; survey and monitoring of endangered plants and wildlife. 

With Volun-Tourism we envision an enlightened and empowered rural India where local communities are able to create conditions to fulfill their aspiration and earn a respectful livelihood without leaving their villages, overcoming barriers of class, cast, gender, ethnicity and religion. 

May we declare the mission of Help Tourism for 2011:
RURAL ENLIGHTENMENT THROUGH VOLUN-TOURISM! 

We solicit your blessings, support and participation to help us establish benchmarks in Responsible Tourism and influence rest of the globe with our humble mission. 

We wish you all a great, peaceful and prosperous New Year ahead. 

With deep regards, admiration, appreciation and love. 

Help Tourism Family. 

31st December 2010, India.

After an inspiring two-day workshop the delegates at the “Peace through tourism in historically changed Cross-borders”-Conference drafted the Shantiniketan Declaration (pdf).