Manisha Pande — Responsible Tourism Pioneer

Interview by Amit Dixit

In 2004, Manisha Pande and her husband Himanshu, along with a few friends co-founded Village Ways to help sustain the villages of the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in India, which were under serious threat of outmigration due to lack of livelihood opportunities. Village Ways has established 26 community-owned, small guesthouses in India, Nepal and a community tourism project in Simiens, Ethiopia. Village Ways is a unique concept of tourism, collectively owned and run by the community, where benefits are shared with the entire village. Manisha is also the founding member of the International Centre of Responsible Tourism India Network. Village Ways has won several awards like the British Guild of Travel Writer’s award, Guardian Travel Awards, Times Green Spaces Award, WTM Responsible Tourism Awards (2009, 2013, 2017, 2020), TOFT wildlife Community Award, Responsible Employer Award by PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, and so on.

When you started Village Ways in Kumaon there was hardly anything like it. How did you decide to embark on this journey? What inspired you and what models did you emulate?

Village Ways was set up to assist the local communities of 5 villages located within the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarakhand, to provide an alternate source of livelihood. These villages were under serious threat of outmigration. During the early phase in 2003, Rural Tourism, as such, was not very known and, therefore, the research was mainly to know the issues faced by local communities in the region and also the reasons why there was significant level of outmigration from these beautiful villages. The concept took the shape of a unique model of community-based tourism. The communities were assisted with funds by Village Ways to develop guest houses (one in each village) with a capacity of maximum 6 people. The ownership was well protected and in the hands of the village tourism committees, each having at least one member from every household and a minimum percentage fixed for women’s participation. Trainings were provided by Village Ways to maintain a standard for visitors, so that it becomes not only a beneficial project for the local people but also an exceptional holiday experience for guests.

Where all do you operate currently and what are your offerings?

Currently we are operating in Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala, where we are working independently. And in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and a few villages of Uttarakhand, we are working with state governments.

For our guests, we have a very interesting mix of experiences, hosted by the local communities. Guests can choose from our walking holidays in the Himalayan villages to our cultural and wildlife-based experiences in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, or the traditional and farming-based experiences in Karnataka and Kerala. From Autumn 2024, we are also launching a unique holiday experience combining Hill Tribe villages of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

How can community-based tourism evolve as a product over the years and sustain the interest of travellers, especially repeat visitors?

Community-based tourism is a very right way to introduce tourism activities, especially in rural areas. Based on our experiences of over 19 years, this form of tourism engages communities collectively and they not only share benefits, but also the responsibilities of impacts that tourism brings into any region, which can also be negative if not done in the right way. The learnings from community-based tourism help the people to be more aware of the dangers of tourism and it also avoids over-dependence on tourism income. As this concept works well for local people, the result is a beautiful and warm experience for guests to be a ‘guest of the village’ and not just a family or an individual. One feels welcome as a part of the community, where the entire village looks after you and invites you to be part of their day-to-day life. The meaningful connections created between guests and hosts becomes a long-term bonding and guests like to repeat their visits. In our case some of our guests have even visited the same villages over four times.

How did you ride out the Covid-19 pandemic? What were your learnings from it?

The Covid-19 pandemic was a tough time for Village Ways. The initial response from our side was to ensure that all our villages are safe and that we support them closely. The business was also under pressure because of a halt in tour operations, which was, until then, the only source of revenue. The first learning for us was to diversify our nature of work and sources of revenue. We had worked on our first consultancy project with the state government of Uttarakhand in 2015, and post-Covid, we had the opportunity to be involved in government projects to develop rural tourism projects in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and on a second project with the Uttarakhand Tourism Board. These assignments helped us to sustain ourselves and we were fortunate to retain all our team members. The village projects also faced challenges as we had very limited funds to spend on maintenance of the guest houses in different states and our community-run houseboat in Kerala. CSR support from Jubilant Bhartia Foundation to our Binsar Villages came as a timely support. This helped us to get the guest houses ready for guests and through the other consultancy income, we were able to also get the other villages ready. We have now restarted all our locations in India. Additionally, we also initiated our handicraft wing, ‘Village Made’, which now works with our villages to develop handicraft and souvenir making. This will help us to create more avenues for communities to earn through sale of what they make in the villages using local skills, raw material and trainings. Covid came with many learnings and most important for us, was to focus on domestic marketing, diversifying income sources and also keeping connections between guests and hosts through social media, which worked very well during Covid when we introduced our campaign, ‘Keep in Touch’.

How critical is the role of governments in supporting community-based tourism?

The government has the resources to scale up this concept and if they take the benefit of experience sharing, community-based tourism is a perfect model with long-term positive impacts. It is not just useful for bringing economic impacts but can also bring positive impacts on social, cultural and environmental aspects. If the community is mobilised to take up something collectively and benefit from it, they can contribute towards the overall development of the region. Government policies and schemes can also benefit the communities in a more effective way. The role of government, therefore, becomes very crucial to expand this concept uniformly across different states and bring some policy-level additions to encourage this model. The government can also ensure that tourism remains an alternate source of livelihood by also supporting the villages to preserve and enhance their traditional practices of farming and fishing, etc. They have the necessary powers to also regulate the volume of tourists, and this becomes critical to safeguard our vulnerable rural areas.

How receptive has the community been to the efforts of Village Ways to promote sustainable tourism? In what tangible ways has it benefitted them?

Without the support and participation from our partner communities, the success of these projects would not have been possible. The reason for communities to be receptive is the ownership, which lies with them and democratically set up operational systems through the formation of Village Tourism Committees in each village, which manages the day-to-day running of their tourism units. Direct benefits have come through income from tourism activities through creation of different roles like cooks, housekeepers, guides, porters, taxi drivers, etc. Also, through regular trainings, communities have seen rise in their skills and also built their confidence and sense of pride for their traditions, culture and their surrounding environment. Villages have also benefitted through this project to come together, to have a common voice and also for supporting each other.

What are some of the major challenges you have faced over the years?

With our limited income source through tour operation activities, it becomes challenging to cover yearly costs for maintenance of our village enterprises to keep up with the standards for guests and also for trainings apart from our well-controlled overheads. As we generally choose to work in areas where there is a need for an alternate source of income and relatively less or no forms of tourism, marketing a new destination certainly is challenging and needs constant efforts through PR and social media, and again adding to the requirement of funding such activities. Choosing to work in such destinations ensures that we are offering a unique experience to guests and also helps in dispersing travellers from typically famous tourism points contributing to the aims of Responsible Tourism.

Sustainability has become a trendy buzzword. How do we distinguish genuine operators from the pretenders?

Data sharing, reporting and third-party analysis are signs of good work, and this could distinguish the genuine operators. On what principles is the business set up and if these are followed, is another side which speaks about any business or project. Another factor which could speak in favour of genuine work, is how long it has been running for. Good work shows well on ground and also continues for the time until which it is well tested and has shown results. Guest reviews can also play a role, subject to not being only focussed on service-related feedback. Repeat guest visits speak volumes about good practices and experiences.

What future currents do you foresee in the evolution of tourism?

Tourism overall is seeing a shift towards choosing ‘Experiences’ rather than ‘Stays’. Though the usual tourism will also continue, but with awareness created around social, cultural and environmental impacts of tourism, both travellers and hosts are becoming more aware and are conscious of how they choose a destination with regards to travellers and how a destination is developed from the point of view of a host. Post-Covid, we have been hosting maximum domestic guests unlike pre-Covid, when we were hosting mainly international guests. It is very encouraging for us to work with like-minded partners and receive very positive reviews from our guests as well as our partner communities. This is the perfect time for all stakeholders of tourism to create some common policies for tourism, which are uniformly implemented by everyone and become a standard rather than niche.

The new 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter was signed on Magna Carta Island on 6th November, 2022. How did it feel to be part of this historic event?

The Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations dates to 2002. Twenty years on and with an accelerating climate crisis caused by greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity extinction and the 2015 SDGs, it was time to revise the Responsible Tourism Movement’s statement of purpose. On Magna Carta Island where it is believed King John signed the Magna Carta, the 2022 Responsible Tourism Charter was launched. Among those present to celebrate the launch, there was a large group from India, now the world’s leading Responsible Tourism destination and people from 14 countries and four continents. I was honoured to be part of the event.

The preamble to the new Charter affirms: “Sustainability is an aspiration. It will only be realised if and when we take responsibility for making tourism sustainable. Responsibility drives sustainability. Responsible Tourism is about ‘making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit’.

The diversity of our world makes travel worthwhile and generates tourism. Few businesses or destinations can address all the issues on the Responsible Tourism agenda. We need to explain why we take responsibility for the things we choose to improve through tourism and the impacts of our efforts.”