Don’t just travel, travel to impact
HYDERABAD: Why just travel, when you can come back making a positive impact? That’s the credo of the current day traveller which traveller-turned-CEO Vandana Vijay endorses, promotes and enables. The Instagram travel is passe. I think we all have gone beyond that shallow travel to now visit a place and come back with a happy heart, having made a slight difference for having visited that place," she says.
Speaking at as part of Musafir – journeying for a cause on Saturday at The Conscious Storey in Banjara Hills, Vandana spoke to City Express to explain about the catching trend of ‘impact tourism’. Musafir was a series of talks and performances which encompassed the journeys of social enterprises in the fields of music, social development, and sustainability.
The CEO and Founder of Offbeat Tracks, Vandana says after having worked in Facebook for three years and getting the high of a corporate job, one of her trips got her thinking about turning into an entrepreneur and starting a travel company that enables people to come back feeling they have made a difference to the town they had visited.
"Offbeat Tracks, started in October 2016 is based on impact tourism and our travel tries to fulfil two of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG19) of the United Nations – gainful employment and clean energy. I’ve always felt that travel should stimulate you and fill you with new energy. We need to go beyond just selfies in front of monuments," says Vandana.
"In July 2017, 14 travellers from California including two NRIs and I set out on a 10-day trip to Takmachick village in Ladakh. This village, located at an altitude of 14,000 sq feet and with subzero temperatures nearly eight months an year had no power or water till then. We managed to get power for about 10 houses and the trek involved carrying 100 kg equipment to be able to light up their lives. The satisfaction after we trekked down was invaluable. We managed to put the lights made by students of California as part of Lighting for literacy programme manage to bring light to Ladakh," she adds.
A trip to Northeast need not just be about experiencing the nature or taking a boat ride on the rivers but about learning if you go for the Hornbill Festival from December 1 to 1- in Nagaland. “Indigenous people of 24 tribes congregate during the festival and you can learn how to weave a basket or knit a shawl or make Nagaland’s signature dish made of King Chili. Why buy a souvenir when you can make one,” she asks.
Or one could even get a crash course in archery, learn to do a Mandala painting or get a lesson in astronomy from the monks in Bhutan in December. What for those who cannot travel during the year-end due to work? Vandana promises, "We can arrange for an amazing Burmese homecooked meal by a home chef from Burma. Are you game?"