- Wednesday, 12 February 2025
Geotourism Gains
Saudamini Chalise
A concocted rendition of tourism, contoured to resonate with the innate quintessence of the Nepalese tourism spectrum is perhaps “Goetourism” which harnesses the geographical repertoire of an emplacement and its aesthetics, environment, culture, heritage and the beatitude of its local denizens.
Locations
The perception of geo-tourism endeavours goes beyond the notion of simply traversing through some mundane locations in whims and fancy akin to some rudderless ketch wafting over in Davyy's Jones locker without giving much ado. On the contrary, geo-tourism diverts its focus on a particular location and spontaneously its community becomes a full-fledged partner in providing the tourists with an authentic and enthralling moxie.
The core concept of 'Geotourism emphasises particularly the native culture, its products and its traditions.
And not only has it offered globetrotters multiple fortuities to scrutinise the magnificent pulchritudinous nature and its human counterparts. Geotourism traverses in the footfall of the ‘Four Corner Landscape’ which is acclaimed globally.
The principles of geotourism hover over the theory which postulates that where there is a tangible harmonious exchange between the residents and foreign tourists with the priority given to treasuring local cultures and the rendezvous remains ameliorative for both parties.
It safeguards the resources that have been mangled by an incessant influx of tourists. It follows its core guidelines of venturing past the guidebook, escalating the worth of local cultures and enriching tourist's exposure couture to the region without concocting an eroded version of the host locales.
It also imbibes the soul of sustainable tourism and incorporates its essence by conserving resources and producing conscious travellers who patronise businesses that reduce pollution and waste, energy consumption, water usage, landscaping chemicals and excessive use of lighting.
Geotourism coaches foreign globe trotters to pay respect to local customs and local history. The foreign guest incorporates local etiquette that might include common phrases in local languages. In retrospect, residents have a fair notion to accommodate foreign expectations that may drastically differ from theirs.
It aggressively focuses to achieve quality and not quantity, a well-set parameter to gauge consistency in tourism rather tourism success is not perceived by the number of visitors but by the length of their tenure, and their spending. And by the quality of the consumption of their experience.
It is rather synergistic as it envelopes every minute entity, complex elements of geographical character which in return works together to weave an intricate fabric to enhance the tourism experience with an appealing ambience with the consumption of diverse interests involving the local community businesses and civic groups.
The entire local component works to achieve destination stewardship. Local counterparts automatically garner pride and skill in brandishing off the resources of their homes and resources and these are protected so that tourists have a better experience of the visit.
This sort of equation benefits the residents economically. The practice of geotourism weaves memorable trips rendering the travel enthusiasts to filter new information garner new adventures and so forth.
This sort of process will generate healthy business for the destination. This format of tourism percolates a sense of pride to the residents and it manoeuvres such a strategy where the respect for local cultures and traditions is boosted and given the utmost priority. Geotourism traverses around the roadmap where the emphasis is given on quality and not quantity.
Nepal too should emphasize chiselling out a programme where the focus is shifted towards cajoling foreign travellers to lengthen the stay of their tenure rather than running around in the rat race to only calculate the quantity of tourists arriving inside the country. Nepal should not be labelled as a picayune spot merely to be seen as an option to hop and skip.
Sky Is the Limit
The rawness of the adventure, thrills, rushing off the adrenalin, soothing of the internal monologues that often cause a ruckus at the back of the head, and pristineness should be the ‘X’ factor to saunter own ways and spend some quality time on our enchanting soil.
Sky's the limit for tourism prospects in Nepal but the focus should be stressed on competency level and formulation of proper planning suited to the nature of our tourism products. Utmost vigilance and farsightedness are perhaps the secret keys that will guarantee the shelf life of merchandising our tourism legacy.
Being parsimonious in preserving and swaggering the richness of our copiousness and opulence of natural splendiferousness shall create repercussions in the coming decades. The current trend of mushrooming concrete jungles and commoditization of glibness will boomerang us in the face truncating the image of vending and preserving natural tourism.
(Chalise holds a PhD in travel trade)
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