Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable Tourism by The Blue Yonder in Sikkim

Employing 260 million people and generating 10.7% of world’s GDP, Tourism is the largest as well as the fastest industry of the world. Within this industry a growing number of people – both travelers, travel agents as well as travel companies – are pushing a new brand: sustainable tourism that conserves natural resources, values the  local culture and traditions, opened up to visitors and contributes to the (local) economy. Sustainable tourism wants to make the development of tourism ecologically supportable in the long term. Moreover, sustainable tourism, also called responsible tourism, intends to generate employment and income in the villages exposed to tourists, without disrupting the social and ecological balance that existed before the tourist came. Next to this, there’s also an element of information exchange: except informing the tourists about the destination they are about to visit, it also aims at informing the locals about the foreign cultures of the tourists.Earlier – when aspects as livelihood and local economy were not involved in ‘green’ initiatives – what is now commonly know as sustainable tourism was then called ‘eco-tourism‘. As explained above, sustainable tourism is broader, deals with more than only environmental aspects of having tourist visit villages and thus encomprises eco-tourism in its concept.

There is a growing body of travel agencies involved in sustainable or responsible tourism. AMAIDI plans to get involved in this area by linking

Responsible Tourism by The Blue Yonder in Karnataka

with one of such organizations, called The Blue Yonder. This Bangalore based travel agency promotes tourism that is economically, ecologically and socially just. The Blue Yonder lets you explore India through river rafting or a country boat cruise, legend trails, rain forest trekking, camping, walking safari, vehicle safari, music trails, marital arts, folk expressions, culinary trails or just lazing. The Blue Yonder is set up to raise funds for the Nila Foundation, to revive and regenerate one of the longest and sadly neglected rivers in South India called Nila (Bharatapuzha). At present The Blue Yonder offers sustainable/responsible tourism destinations in Kerala, Karnataka, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Orissa, West-Bengal, Andaman Islands and Nepal, exploring new destinations in Tamil Nadu in partnership with AMAIDI Volunteering in India.

Filed under: Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Sustainable Tourism, Village life, volun-tourism, eco-tourism, Responsible tourism, The Blue Yonder