Tourism and Concepts
Tourism is one of the mainstream activities throughout the world. In the present with all the developing aspect and issues, tourism is also termed as “Tourism Industry.” Withdrawing oneself form the daily work and monotonous routine, people love to travel, be it a local destination or any international spot. Travelling gives us a new experience and get us into the new level of learning as the famous philosopher Saint Augustine has wisely said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.”
With the increasing pace of traveling, tourism has been introduced to other concepts like sustainable development to take this two concept together to promote tourism and sustainable development as well. Ecotourism, greentourism,and sustainable tourism are some of the popular concepts in today’s tourism industry. This different concept of tourism is often taken with the same meaning. However, they are different. Green tourism was used during the 1980s in a study by researchers. The study described the hotel industry practice of placing green placards in each hotel room that encouraged guest to reuse the towels. The study concluded that the hotels made very little to no effort to conserve resources or reduce waste, they just wanted to appear environmentally friendly of “green.” The main gist of green tourism is to operate ant tourism activity in an environmentally friendly manner. The very same concept of ecotourism says it is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people. Ecotourism is visiting relatively undisturbed natural areas, low-impact,andsmall-scale alternative compared to standard commercial mass tourism. Ecotourism is all about educating a traveler, to aid in ecological conservation, economic development, cultural promotion, developing local communities and many more.
Sustainable Tourism
Very similar to the above concepts of tourism, sustainable tourism supports the conservation of the environment, the economy of the local community and the development of society. Sustainable tourism stands to make a positive impact on the local community and preserve and promote the natural as well as cultural heritage. Some examples of sustainable tourism are conserving water and other energy like using solar instead of electricity, reuse,andrecycling of waste, employing local people, using local products, supporting community conservation projects and so on.
Dolma Tours in Sustainable Tourism
Dolma Tours was founded in the year 2003 through the partnership with the Dolma Foundation and Tsering Lama. Dolma Tours came into existence to promote the concept of sustainable tourism. We run with the main principle of promoting environmental and cultural awareness, providing direct financial benefit to locals, operating the low impact routes and villages around Nepal to promote them under eco-tourism, and to work to create the empowerments to the local community.
Dolma Tours works both ways, it provides the best experience to the visitorswith a closer view of the cultural, spiritual and natural beauty of Nepal and serves the villagers too. Operated with the theme of sustainable tourism, Dolma Tours shares its profit with Dolma Foundation for reinvestment in the community to empower the locals to defend their culture in changing times.
Dolma Tours of Dolma Foundation
Established in 2003 as a non-profit impact investor, education sponsor, and development advisor, Dolma Tours is a part of Dolma Foundation. Dolma Foundation is established with the aim of alleviating poverty by investing in education, health and sustainable businesses in Nepal. During the devastating earthquake of April 2015 as well, we provided emergency aid to the remote villages and helped them rebuild the village and lives of survivors.
Dolma Foundation is directly involved with the local people through the programmes and helps they create to touch the lives of community members. Nepal comprises timeless and distinctive cultural values and practices, which have plenty to teach wealthier communities about true sustainability and lower-stress lifestyle. Bridim is one of the community villages which is being funded by Dolma Foundation. It has been more than a decade of association with Bridim with us and with the help and support of the local community as well; we have been successful to provide direct employment to more than 800 people, completed post-earthquake rebuild with 55 buildings and several other projects are running on present as well. Also, with the share of profits form Dolma Tours and other donations, we have educated around 200 children (some into college/university), provided healthcare visit form foreign doctors and introduced new way of agriculture which resulted in increased production by 45-50%.
As a part of the sustainable business program, Dolma Foundation has been running eco-tourism program along with the communities like Bridim. Dolma Tours is the wing for the operations of all our community-led tourism projects in Nepal. All of this is the one part of the Dolma Foundation,and since its establishment, it has been operating on the full extent in Nepal.
Our Objectives and Focus through Sustainable Development
Dolma Foundation has been running tourism programs for a long time now, and with all those programs we have been successful in connecting with the life of the rural community and upgrading their daily lifestyle. As development with sustainability is our prime objective, we focus on the following three categories of development:
Tourism
Tourism is one of the rising business of Nepal,and it has many prospects with sustainable development. Homestay, camping trek, ecotourism are the some of the best ways for sustainable development. Activities like cycling, jungle safari, rafting are the part of ecotourism. Along with enjoying all the beautiful views and having fun, you will also get to be part of local cultural programs.
Agriculture
More than 80% of Nepal’s population depends on agriculture. Most of the agricultural activities are based on rural areas,andcrops are produced adopting traditional means. So, we have been extending our support by helping to commercialize their farming and also supporting them with soil testing and other scientific ways to increase the level of production. We have been planning to introduce the modern way of agriculture technique for crops and seasonal vegetables.
Culture
Nepal is blessed with unique culture and traditions,and it is one of the features that describe Nepal. But with the increasing modernizations, these cultural practice and values are on lost,and they need to be saved. The ancient and historical monuments with a rich culture which lies around the country are very precious and of beyond value. With the aim of preserving the distinctive culture of Nepal, we would like to run some cultural shows through our homestay program with the help of locals for tourists stayingin their village. Our future priorities will include visiting, meditating and volunteering to teach at local schools and monasteries.