Travelling with Responsibility:
Responsible tourism is not about staying in five-star Eco-friendly hotels or eating organic food in super-expensive restaurants-it’s more about engaging yourself in a dignified way to construct a better place to visit. We consider responsible tourism is something very simple since it’s all about supporting local people, respecting their culture, and being easy on their native soil and that’s all we need to do. It’s all about personal understanding, learning, and experiencing – which undoubtedly is more than just mere looking.
“All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.”
Following are the three major principles of responsible travel:
ENVIRONMENT
Travel which makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and human heritage, biodiversity and wilderness, and minimizes negative environmental impacts
SOCIAL/CULTURAL
Travel which respects culture and traditions, and encourages authentic interaction and a greater understanding between travelers and hosts
ECONOMIC
Travel which has fair financial benefits for the host community. Monies spent by travelers remain in the community through the use of locally owned accommodation, services, and staff.
However, while it is good for the locals to reap the benefit of tourism, it strongly discourages the exploitation of its people (i.e. prostitution, low wages, etc.) as a result of unhealthy competition, lack of awareness, etc.
RATIONALE BEHIND OUR RESPONSIBLE TOURISM POLICY
“A healthy ecology is a basis for a healthy economy.”
The mere mention of the word Himalaya may evoke a magical, mystical place to many people, but it is also home to some of the poorest people on earth. The region itself is a fragile ecosystem that cannot support large numbers of tourists. The customs and traditions of the indigenous people living in remote valleys are also vulnerable to the over-bearing culture of tourists. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves as tour operators to recognize this dichotomy by putting in place strict guidelines to minimize the impact of our presence.
Many underdeveloped countries such as ours have become dependent on the tourist dollar for their future development, and this has led to many fits of abuse by tourists and tour operators. If managed appropriately, we believe that tourism has an enormous capacity to bring benefits to these places by bringing much needed economic growth and supporting development and conservation efforts. Therefore, we have placed a major focus on our operations in setting the standards in responsible tourism. By this we hope to repair some of the damage already done and eliminate the possibility of repeating the same mistakes in the future by acting sensitively, being as well informed as possible, informing others about the perils of these dangerous practices and bring about a new wave of attitude towards the concept of conservation and preservation.
In many ways, our role in promoting the Himalayan regions and its varied cultures may be the most powerful contribution we make as we strongly believe that once we initiate this interest, people will, consequently, be aware of the perils that face the Himalaya and its fragile ecology. Our emphasis is on creating awareness through participation.
We invite your contributions and feedback on ways we can further improve our approach to sustainable tourism while ensuring the future protection of the environment and, the indigenous people, their age-old traditions, and cultures. As the famed Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote “we live in this world as long as we love it.”
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
Whilst we play our part in ensuring that the planning of our holiday and your travel experiences comply with the ecotourism or responsible tourism principles, a large part of the responsibility is with you, as the guest of the country you are visiting. Although to most it is a matter of common-sense, our guests are given a few simple guidelines on responsible traveling covering everything from begging to buying artifacts. We urge you to read them and get behind our push for responsible tourism.
OUR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Leading trekkers and climbers from around the world into Nepal mountains are not the only things we do but we are also aware of our social responsibilities. Since we are very concerned, we actively participate in the advancement of our porters’ children. Each of your bookings with the 'Himalayan Dynasty' contributes to the welfare of these deprived children.
