Time to Take a Break!
Travel and Platforms
I would be on my long awaited Himalayan Trek in Mandani Valley when you receive this newsletter. Mother Nature and Almighty permitting , we would conclude the journey at Kedarnath. Fortunately, the telecom revolution has not reached “Bugyals”(Alpine Meadows of Uttarakhand) so this is totally “connected to self” journey. My apologies in advance for being “out of coverage area” till 17th October 2021
I have been trekking in Uttarakhand Himalayas for past two decades though most of them have been in a relatively narrow geographic region between Alaknanda and Mandakini River Valleys OR more popularly between Kedarnath and Badrinath. Of course, many of these journeys were very uncertain , extremely arduous, and at times unpleasant. It also meant facing and solving problem after problem but let me tell you that some of these may have been the most meaningful journeys I may ever do. I often recall a quote from an interesting movie titled “Into the Wild”. The lead character Christopher McCandless may be quotes Tolstoy and says “If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed”.And follow his advise when he says - "When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it."
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You could read more about Travel and Platforms in these earlier newsletters
Trip across platforms transforming travel through hygiene, convenience and care.
Ironically, New Luxury in the travel and tourism industry would be “cleanliness”. Customer would need assurance that the rooms have been sanitised and they have minimal chance of infections. This is where the organised travel and accommodation sector including Star Hotels are going to make a difference. With their well-established protocols and PR machinery , they should go full throttle to assure their guests of the New Normal. Many industry players might follow health advisory related to minimum buffer period between guest using a specific asset. Sharing economy platforms in travel and tourism might suffer from lack of standardised protocols as well as non-compliance by their partners.
The outdoor is back in fashion though in a new avatar. Outdoor can help in rebuilding travel and tourism but in a fundamentally three different ways- Private, Proximate and Personalised.
The most important facet would be personalisation. There is no demand and hence the customer is king. Everybody is trying to make an impression and get the guest. Experts have conflicting perspective about the nature of consumer demand. I have earlier argued that luxury travel would recover faster than the budget travel. Even on platforms like AirBnB and TripAdvisor , travellers would find it difficult to stay with strangers but might be more inclined to a more personalised experience even at premium. We would see more beaches & mountains rather than cities; more travel for relaxation rather than ‘'doing’ AND beaten-off path than nightlife.
An increase in mindfulness or consciousness of about our being or simply being deliberate about our actions/life. . These profound changes have happened through four interfaces of Food, Sleep, Relationships and Leisure.
Pandemic forced us inside our homes for the larger part of 2020 and thus created new paradigms of leisure. Lot of my friends ended up taking stayactions and platforms like AirBnB have promoted local experiences over international travel. They are also promoting longer stays with local hosts curating long term experiences for the guests including in-depth food and culture trips. AAGAAS Federation at Pipalkoti, Chamoli Garhwal in Uttarakhand has pioneered community based voluntary non-profit making bio-tourism initiative to promote deliberate living.
Kudos to Neelesh Misra for being a pioneer in Slow Movement through his path breaking Slow Interviews, Slow Experiences and of course Slow Bazaar. We need more such experiments and it feels good that some of the early green shoots are in the vicinity of my village in Dehradun district.
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And please remember that there is no ‘How or When do I do it’ there is only ‘if I would do it ‘!
I Love You
Shailendra
PS-Here is the picture of my faithful Backpack for many past treks.
PPS
There would be no regular post on 17th October 2021!
Would talk to you on 24th Oct before I turn another year older on 25th October 2021