The origin of “Discovering Destinations Differently.”
Back in 2015 I started visiting mainstream destinations, spending a day visiting what all tour companies showcase and then, bucket list ticked I’d spend another week there finding out what else made those destinations tick. Why else they were ‘famous?’ What did locals do, where did they eat, what they recommended to see and do, and listened to their stories. I got talking to people who were passionate about their home towns, who hated the fact that tourists were shown 2-3 key monuments, dragged into shops and then hurried off to the next city.
A destination is more than a monument. It is its culture, it’s food, it’s art and crafts and more importantly, it’s people.
To get to know a place, you need to peel back the layers, spend longer and discover more which will automatically result in a more enriching experience, both for the traveller and the destination.
I wasn’t intentionally thinking about sustainability, it was more about client enjoyment. But the very by product of this, is it slows things down, more local people are engaged and everyone benefits. It also means that hotels are not dealing with short turnovers, meaning less impact on the environment too.
What started out as wanting to enhance the client experience, resulted in inadvertently creating a more sustainable travel experience.
Not everyone wants to be green or sustainable, a lot of people do, but don’t understand how. Giant strides are great and to be applauded, but gentle nudges in the right direction for a lot more travellers would be beneficial too.
If you’d like to discover what I discovered, you can check out the Discovering Destinations Differently series on my blog (www.memsahibinindia.com) and type “Differently,” in the search. Enjoy!
For more info contact me on philippa@indianexperiences.com
#sustainable #regenerative #ecoconscious
