One of the most professional tour operators in the Himalayas, Lara Tsering operates out of the beautiful Spiti Valley.
Lara received training on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Tourism as part of an intensive course on Developing Tourism Entrepreneurs put on by Automik sustainable development consultants and the non-profit Himalayan NGO Pragya Foundation.
Lara has years of experience and the course merely confirmed his existing policies on environmental and cultural awareness in tourism based industries in such a fragile habitat as the Himalayas - both culturally and environmentally.
Conceptual Peer to Peer Technology Sharing in Tourism
The most efficient way to learn is through practice, and with that in mind Automik Consultants have initiated planning on the latest in p2p open source development in the sustainable travel industry.
Automik will provide an open access Future Travel Labratory for experimentation in the fields of sustainable design/architecture and clean technology.
The complex(rumoured to be located somewhere in the Caribbean) will aim to provide for every need of the high tech traveler of tomorrow, including wireless live media streams and p2p community media sharing and collaborative creative design projects. An emphasis on using recycled waste materials and the latest in sustainable building and agri-technology throughout to minimize the carbon emissions and ecological footprint of the hotel and every traveler that passes through it.
Right now its still in the planning stages and these are just a few of the ideas being suggested but once again, this is an open source project and the aim of the entire project is to be a labratory for experimentation in sustainable travel technology and a creative collaboration junction.
check here for regular updates and submit any ideas for consideration at the open source travel lab to automik.com.
Automik will provide an open access Future Travel Labratory for experimentation in the fields of sustainable design/architecture and clean technology.
The complex(rumoured to be located somewhere in the Caribbean) will aim to provide for every need of the high tech traveler of tomorrow, including wireless live media streams and p2p community media sharing and collaborative creative design projects. An emphasis on using recycled waste materials and the latest in sustainable building and agri-technology throughout to minimize the carbon emissions and ecological footprint of the hotel and every traveler that passes through it.
Right now its still in the planning stages and these are just a few of the ideas being suggested but once again, this is an open source project and the aim of the entire project is to be a labratory for experimentation in sustainable travel technology and a creative collaboration junction.
check here for regular updates and submit any ideas for consideration at the open source travel lab to automik.com.
Ingredients for Sustainability
The tourism economy will only flourish with:
- the full support of the local community; and
- it will only last as long as the natural environment remains healthy and preserved; and
- cultural uniqueness is upheld through a genuine pride in popular traditions
Sustainable development means, in the words of the 1987 World Commission on Environment, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
In other words, sustainable development is a comprehensive approach to promoting development in ways that do not harm the environment or deplete natural resources so that they will still be available in the future.
The Times story covering the 2007 Virgin Responsible Travel Awards available here.
Always a great way to find out about the cream of the crop from the sustainable tourism industry.
2007 was a big year for responsible travel, it is a growing market and undoubtedly 2008 will be even harder to judge.
Unfortunetly, the awards process really focuses on the larger shows in town, the example of Finca Esperanza, a small community based tourism project in Nicaragua is the only one of its kind. I know it must be hard to quantify the comparative 'sustainability' of the little finca and a 4 star hotel chain based in the UK, but I really hope to see a lot more small operators in next years competition.
Always a great way to find out about the cream of the crop from the sustainable tourism industry.
2007 was a big year for responsible travel, it is a growing market and undoubtedly 2008 will be even harder to judge.
Unfortunetly, the awards process really focuses on the larger shows in town, the example of Finca Esperanza, a small community based tourism project in Nicaragua is the only one of its kind. I know it must be hard to quantify the comparative 'sustainability' of the little finca and a 4 star hotel chain based in the UK, but I really hope to see a lot more small operators in next years competition.
FACTS :
- Tourism is one of the leading engines of economic growth, job creation and income re-distribution around the world today. Accounting for $ 883 billion USD in 2006, put another way, international tourism earns nearly $ 2.4 billion USD per day.
- Between 1995 and 2005 the number of international travelers increased at a rate of 4.1 percent annually, exceeding 883 million in 2005 and is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2020. This represents the largest peacetime, non-migratory population movement in history.
- Like any other industry in the 21st century, tourism has a powerful and transformative effect on local landscapes; economies, cultures and environments. Unlike other industries, tourism relies on the original attractiveness of local landscapes for its own survival. As such, the tourism economy cannot be as blindly developed as other industries, and requires unique attention to sustainable management if the benefits and revenues of tourism are to be ongoing.
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