Being Responsible

One of the first TBY-Vayali micro-credit beneficiary

Last year at the World Travel Market in London, one of the leading destination management companies from Cochin asked us this question. “All your talk about responsible tourism is fine. It’s easy for a property to be more responsible than a tour operator like us. They can make simple changes like install energy saving bulbs or setup rainwater harvesting in their property. They might purchase local produces. Even if we had aspirations to be a responsible tourism operator, frankly we don’t know how to do this. Do you have some suggestions?”

This kept me thinking and here are some observations posted on The Blue Yonder blog

Social enterprises redefining sector boundaries?

“I am investigating the possibilities of creating awareness of non -malignant palliative issues among various communities and to encourage community participation, and would like some ideas and advice. Thank you very much”


We are quite certain that not many travel companies will receive enquiries that are unrelated to holiday planning! Especially something like the one above. This was a message The Blue Yonder team received from a pathologist in South Africa recently. For us, this is a proof of what an impact a maturing relationship between two social enterprises can create. One- working to spread the community owned palliative care to rest of the world (Institute of Palliative Medicine) and the other- a sustainable tourism operator using tourism as a tool to bring attention of the world to successful and inspiring initiatives like Kozhikode model of Palliative care (The Blue Yonder).



Read the complete blog here

Revisiting River Nila in search of music...

Picture:A plaque announcing the inauguration of the foundation laying ceremony by David Stott from Australia.

David is a frequent visitor to India. It's a country that he calls home. Two years ago, David had to 'agree' to 'lay the foundation' of an innovative experiment in Kerala. He inaugurated the construction of the campus dedicated to the memory of legendary musician and spiritual nomad, 'Njaralathu Rama Poduval' who is credited for bringing out the temple related devotional singing style of 'Sopana Sangeetham' out to the public.

When The Blue Yonder designed a musical trail with young musical prodigy Harigovindan, the idea was to give voice to many unconventional musicians of lower strata of the society along river Nila. This half a day experience became an instant hit among travellers from around the world. Conde Nast traveler called our trip one of the '8 Great Trips' that give back to destination based on the content of this experience. As Harigovindan, who took up the role as a key interpreter says, "This initiative gave self-respect to our musicians in the region. It was a wonderful experience to have music-loving travellers coming to enjoy the unique music style of River Nila and its people'.

Harigovindan was 17 years old when his father, Njeralathu Rama Poduval died. Hari used to accompany his father occasionally during his travels and performances at various temples and public arenas in Kerala. Troubled that the “Idakka” that was his father’s life, lying unused after his death, Hari taught himself how to play the instrument to keep the memory of his father alive.

Soon he realised that his father's name and devotional songs were fading away from the public memory. He came across many other musicians whose voice were not even recorded in their whole life time. He had the foresight that a generation might live without ever experiencing all those magical voices. He approached the Government and many cultural stalwarts of the state proposing to build musuems and art school to preserve their voices digitally and give recognition to up coming artists. Other than hollow promises and unnecessary controversies, it didn't result in any thing productive. However Hari fought the system, got attention from the public and international travellers like David Stott.

Lecture demonstration of various drums including Idakka and Chenda at the Kalasramam

Exactly after two years of laying foundation for the music campus, David Stott along with a group of travellers interested in music and yoga came back to River Nila to see the developments in the location. Seeing a fully functional music school and museum with an open air auditorium and audio library, all David could say was "WOW"! This is solely an achievement of Harigovindan though he humbly acknowledges the generous support he received from ordinary public and travelling community for providing inspiration and energy to go after his dream.

"I didn't set this up because I wanted to do something selfish related to my father. I wanted to do something like this precisely for the reason that many such artists memories were fading away from our memories. For those people who spent their whole life dedicated to music and enriching our traditions, this is the cruelest thing to happen. Representing this generation, people like us have a responsibility to respond to our surrounding. This was mine and I am glad I didn't give up'  Hari says.

Picture above:
David Stott and a group of music loving Australian travellers in front of the newly constructed temple dedicated to music. Instead of a conventional idol of God or Goddesses, the temple has the 'Idakka' which was favourite musical instrument of Njaralathu Rama Poduval. What better way to pay respect to a man who spent his life dedicated to music, especially devotional songs?

Networking in Palliative care

18th International Conference of Indian Association for Palliative Care just concluded in Lucknow with a call to explore adopting social media as one of the tool to network amongst peers and share knowledge to bridge islands of excellence.

Delegates from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Singapore, UK and USA along with their Indian colleagues attended the conference organised by Cancer Aid Society. Two sessions ran by n i i t i consulting on the importance of social media networking for promoting palliative care across the world received enthusiastic response. Except for the handful of delegates using twitter or facebook, rest of them were mostly using email as a tool for communication.

Case studies show-cased on the power of social media ranged from :

• Recent campaign to oust Hosni Mubarak in Egypt  and the role of social media in accelerating the downfall
• How sustainable tourism companies used facebook as a tool to network and raise funds online during the crisis of Cyclone Aila in 2009
• How footprints initiatives get support from innovative micro-funding model of worldnomads
• Real time results of how users of #IAPCON11 manage to network with peers in Australia, US, UK and rest of the world.
• Max Coop - a network promoting 'Open Health through Open Source
• Ushahidi platform on how effectively it was employed during Kenyan riots of 2008
• Nila foundation facebook campaign crowd-sourcing sketches for its publication

While the sessions ignited interest amongst novices to social media, many 'I-have-twitter-but-I-don't-use' delegates were urged to explore the potential of social media, while the 'converts' were urged to build up a palliative care wiki to encourage collaborative content creation about various experiments going around in different parts of the world.

Will be interesting to see some of the recommendations given to set up the next conference in Kolkatta is implemented.

Second part of the workshops specifically involving student volunteers and core team of Institute of Palliative Medicine will be on 19th Feb in Kozhikide. 

Touching the chords of your inner life

pic: @Alvin Vimal

'Kumbhar' in Sanskrit means 'the one who creates'. You see 'Kumbhars' all over India. They create magic out of clay.They are potters of the country. Various reasons including droughts and the urge to travel led many 'Kumbhars' from Andhra Pradesh come and settle down on the banks of River Nila in Kerala several hundred years ago. Like many cultures that blessed the banks of this auspicious river, Kumbhars brought along their rich legends, folklore, skills, lifestyle, language and festivities to this river.

We take travellers from all backgrounds to interact with some of the few remaining potters' communities along the river. Travellers mostly leave exclaiming how magical the experience was! Some of them go into silence as if they are meditating, some of them request if they could try their hands on creating 'something' out of the clay. Once the wheel starts turning, and their hands feel the earth and water, many commented that they are touching the chords of their inner life. They are guided by the 'Kumbhars'- the creators.

The paradox of all this is how 'Kumbhars' are perceived in the Kerala society. 'Kushava' is how a potter is known in Malayalam and it's also used in our day to day life in quite a 'de-meaning' or derogatory way. As a kid, I remember being called a "Kushava" by relatives, when I used to do something really stupid. I am not a historian, nor do I have the knowledge to trace the history and perception of languages and colloquial usages. Wonder how such a beautiful word in Sankskrit meaning a creator, transformed into a derogatory 'Kushava' in Malayalam. Or at least the word 'Kushava' came to be understood.

What prompted to write this much is the news that one of the first potters that we engaged in the village of Arangottukkara stands a risk of not being able to use his hands as efficiently and skillfully as he could earlier. He had a stroke and left side of body including his arm and thumbs are finding it difficult to respond to his 'commands'. From a struggling potter to be someone who could earn a decent living out of local work orders and sustainable tourism initiatives, Gopalan potter has come a long way. However, the recent hospitalisation and lack of ability to work makes his future livelihood uncertain. The Blue Yonder along with it's partner Vayali Folklore Group in Arangottukkara within its constraints are supporting the artist by engaging him in running workshops where some of his relatives are guiding those wanting to learn the art and skill.

Rather than giving a donation or raise funds from well-wishers to support the artists, we are attempting to create an income generation for Gopalan and some other artists by providing them employment opportunities through sustainable tourism.

We are launching a series of 'skill based workshops' in River Nila to highlight the skills and creativity of artists like Gopalan. Please write /call us if you are interested.

Venue : Arangottukara village, Thrissur district in Kerala

Dates : 29-30 Jan 2011

Intake: max 10

Activities: learning workshops in pottery, bamboo weaving and indigenous hand-crafts.

Extra: One can also combine this as a weekend holiday that would include legend trails and folk expressions. Longer duration workshops are also possible.

Contact: info@theblueyonder.com | +91.80.4115.2218 or +91.98860.53286

posted by GP 

World Green Tourism conference in Abu Dhabi

First ever event of the nature and scale, Abu Dhabi witnessed the gathering of global experts at the World Green Tourism conference on 22-24th November 2010. United Arab Emirates isn’t the place that many would relate to any thing ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ considering the opulence and wealth that the region has witnessed.

“Considering the fact that the Emirates subsidises 50-80%of its consumers electricity bills as of now, the reasoning for a green tourism business isn’t much a financial incentive for the hospitality industry. “ says young Jad Frangieh who is the green champion at One to One boutique hotel in Abu Dhabi. On a site visit to the property, he was particularly keen on explaining that “we are not a Green hotel. However, we have decided to join the Green Hotels initiative of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority and implement sustainable practices in our properties. It’s high time we that we all wake up and realise that maintaining a green patch of grass in a desert isn’t green and that is in fact the anti-thesis of anything green. We are glad that this conference brought in many innovators and entrepreneurs and practitioners of sustainable tourism”.

Abu Dhabi's electricity rates of 15 fils per kilowatt-hour (kwh) for expatriates and 5 fils for Emiratis are among the lowest in the world. Subash V Puthenveetil, Hygiene and Safety Mangaer from Anantara said,“We are all aware of the fact, there is so much to do in this region when it comes to sustainability. Our management is keen on being the leaders in this segment and we are ready to go with Abu Dhabi tourism in this direction”.

The conference saw experience sharing from regions as varied as Sweden, Thailand, India, Ireland, UK and UAE. Some of the speakers included, Prof. Harold Goodwin from ICRT, Mary Mulvey from Green Box in Ireland, Mansoor Mohamed from City of Cape Town, Arnfinn Oines from Six Senses Resorts and Spas in Thailand. Key note speakers included Bruce Poon Tip of Gap Adventures, Newyork Times Journalist and Author Elizabeth Becker and George Hickton, former CEO of Tourism New Zealand.

Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, Director General of ADTA is keen to take the sustainability initiative to a new level. ‘We have launched the pioneering Green Hotels programme, and also have initiated the Environment, Health and Safety Management System covering the entire tourism sector. We have made only small steps, but we are certainly keen on learning from other destinations to become a globally recognized, sustainable tourism destination.’

Organisers have already announced the dates for next GreenTourism conference on 5-7 December 20100 at ADNEC in Abu Dhabi. Prof. Harold Goodwin, Director of International Centre for Responsible Tourism and one of the speakers at the conference said, “For once we are seeing a serious government backed intervention to make the industry more sustainable.”

The Blue Yonder presented two case studies on its experience of working in India in a round table on Green Tourism for Hotels and tour operators as as well as in a session "conversations with industry experts:operating with a commitment to sustainability in the tourism industry.

For more details check World Green Tourism conference site

WTM musings

Four days at the World Travel Market in London can be exhaustive. Meetings, networking, product launches, dinners, drinks and further socialising. It's a world on it's own. It's a place where in the last five years we have come across some fantastic people, who inspired our initiatives, gave us more strength to pursue our dreams, when we thought we had no more energy to fight it out in the tough world of business.

2010 WTM in London was special in many ways. The Responsible tourism networking on the 8th at the 7 Dials club was a super hit. Even when it was organised on the first day, there were many people who rebooked their flights so as to come and attend the event. During the ICRT alumni networking on wednesday I came across a person who said, "Oh my! it was so wonderful, all 23 of us were camping in a room just to watch the pitches of new initiatives". The live feed had some technical glitches. However, I guess the event will be known for the enthusiasm amongst participants wanting to be connected to a network they believe would change the way we understand travel and sustainable development.

The event also resulted in forming new partnerships and alliances. University in Liverpool to ITB in Berlin, to small NGOs and community based tourism initiatives were seen building networks and exploring ways to work together. One of our partners beamed, "Looks like more business actually happens over networking with you guys than sitting in a stand and waiting for buyers to come by". I can imagine that to be quite true. Responsible Tourism Networking simply rocks. Thanks to Sally from Tripbod for the never ending enthusiasm to co-organise such fringe events.

Responsible tourism awards has become a main stay of world responsible tourism day celebrations at the WTM and looks like it's getting tougher and tougher to win an award there. This makes me happy to see two of our friends Ishita Khana and Sam Raphael from Ecosphere and Jungle Bay Resorts in Dominica honoured by Virgin Responsible tourism awards.

WTM sponsored responsible tourism networking also brought together many like minded people and it was wonderful to meet many old friends still working with such amazing passion, that you feel that you have not even touched the tip of ice berg that is sustainable tourism. Catching up with Louis D'Amore (IIPT), Fiona Jeffrey (Just A Drop), Dr. Lars R. Lindkvis (Base Camp Foundation), Justin Francis (responsibletravel.com), Dr. Lotfi Kaabi (Planet Art Exchange) and Luke Ford (Gunyah) was very inspiring. Watch out for these people in the next few months for some really inspiring news.

To see Social Tours, Help Tourism, Ecosphere and The Blue Yonder doing business on the platform of The Green Circuit for me is one of the real highlight of this World Travel Market. Looks like industry is heeding to such initiatives positively. The fact that The Green Circuit stand were always busy with one meeting or the other compared to numerous stands in Incredible India pavillion that was empty might be a message for the future way of doing trade shows. Towards the last day, while rest of the exhibitors were running for their flights or a last minute city trips, the GC partners were seen evaluating the trade show on the spot and planning for the next one. How to forget the wonderful evening spent with the whole team?!

Instead of sharing another positive news in this post as an icing on the cake, I am leaving World Travel Market with a bad taste due to some comments we had to hear from buyers and trade partners and many strangers about the attitude of Incredible India. While exhibitors like Indonesia were going out of their way to promote their local coffee ( probably one of the best coffee I had in many months!) and inviting anyone and everyone to join them, Incredible India caterers were rude, cold and even arrogant enough to refuse drinks or snacks if they were not exhibitors of India pavilion. Apparently they had "instructions" from above that the food / drink services should be provided only to the Indian exhibitors.

The staff at the counter were bluntly refusing tea and coffee to people who come by to take a sip. It was funny to see some of our friends were refused drinks because they didn't look like Indians! (Isn't that sort of racist behaviour as well?). If the catering service was only for Indian exhibitors, why on the earth did they maintain an open cafeteria and ended up gaining bad reputation for a brand that seems to be proud about Athiti Devo Bhava ( Guest is our God!).

Other than the poorly constructed stands at Incredible India pavilon, the ignorance of whoever decided to take such a stand was the most embarrassing momen. Some of us were profusely apologising to those people who brought this to our notice! Not sure if that had any impact to change the negative perception of the tourism department.