Tourism is an opportunity for communities and their people to share the benefits of tourism- UNWTO,2022
The travel and tourism industry is one of the booming economic sectors. It continuously helps generate socio-economic benefits across the globe by creating jobs for youths and women, driving exports, and promoting local culture and natural beauty, among others. According to the report published by UNWTO 2022, global tourism trends such as increasing middle-class population, soaring mobility, and more affordable transportation and accommodation options will continue to stimulate increased domestic and international demand.
The income generated from both domestic and international tourism contributes significantly to the socio-economic and cultural development of many cities and their surroundings. However, more than ever, we need to be careful about the adverse effects that tourism might cause on local communities, their surroundings, and their culture.
Nepal has a vast range of geographical diversity, with unique culture, delicious food and lifestyle beyond the famous golden triangle, i.e., Kathmandu-Chitwan-Pokhara and the Everest region. While we are incredibly proud of these places, Nepal has much more to offer. Mainstream tourism in Nepal focuses on a few well-marketed destinations overlooking other equally beautiful yet unexplored destinations. To explore and promote Nepal like never before, Uptrendly Media came up with an innovative competitive show, Imagine Nepal, where seven teams led by influential media personalities will represent seven provinces of Nepal and capture its diversity and uniqueness.
The teams traveled to their respective provinces and tried to understand and capture the beautiful landscapes, terrains, unique culture, and biodiversity of each province. They have highlighted the unexplored parts of each province. As Imagine Nepal took the responsibility of redefining tourism, it partnered with the Community Homestay Network (CHN) to identify and explore Nepal's hidden gems.
As a travel partner, we supported this project by building a travel plan for each team where they would be able to highlight the uniqueness of Nepal while benefiting the local communities. In terms of a promoter of community-based tourism in Nepal, the teams from both Uptrendly and CHN, alongside the influencers, created unique itineraries by adding the unexplored places of Nepal. Be it by suggesting community homestays from the east to the far west region or sending our most seasoned tour leaders to guide the team, CHN was constantly supporting the teams in planning and executing travel requirements while they were redefining the travelling culture in Nepal.
Community Homestay Network strongly focuses on bringing tourism's benefits to local communities. We also focus on alternative destinations where our community homestays are located. We hope to take the environmental and social burden off some of the more overcrowded tourism destinations.
Tourism is slowly picking up as travel restrictions are easing in most countries. There is a huge probability of an increase in both domestic and international travellers, so it is a crucial time to promote Nepal more responsibly. As per the research done by the World Travel and Tourism Council's annual research in 2018, just before the pandemic shut down the whole world for almost two years, the travel industry was one of the booming industries, generating US$ 8.8 trillion annually and contributing 319 million jobs to the world.
Hence, we are hopeful that through this partnership, we will be able to communicate the importance of diversifying destinations and products to support the environment, which helps curb the problems of overtourism while supporting the local economies.
The Episodes of Imagine Nepal aired on Kantipur TV from May 5, 2022, at 9 PM on Thursdays and Fridays.
Watch the episodes of Imagine Nepal in Youtube.
