The Blue Yonder was set up as a travel company based out of Bangalore (Karnataka), four years back to bring in attention of the world to the status of sadly depleted and neglected Bharatapuzha River (River Nila) in the North of Kerala in India and to help raise funds for Nila Foundation that works to revive and regenerate the dying river. “A river is often the thread that weaves lives and traditions in an ageless manner. A river sustains a civilisation.”

We use Responsible Tourism as a tool to spread awareness of many folk art forms, culture and lifestyle that are going into the oblivion. Interaction with travelling community and the knowledge that they are visiting our villages for the richness in the culture brings in a sense of pride amongst the villagers. Since these bring in alternative and supplementary sources of income to all our stake holders, it makes economic sense to our people as well.

By creating a meaningful connection between visitors and the river through interpretations, local people feel more connected with the river as they are the ones giving the interpretation.

Retelling stories, legends and songs about the area and by explaining their significance, local people are themselves made aware of their culture and the need to conserve it. The promoters of The Blue Yonder are from this region.

Cultural and heritage tours we organise along River Nila is now directly benefiting 61 individuals ranging from folk musicians, ritualistic healers, classic percussionists, artisans, ex-sand smugglers to interpreters. The indirect benefits of our holidays are reaching 63 individuals ranging from toddy tappers, oarsmen, drivers and vendors. Out of the 61 direct beneficiaries, 18 of them are women.

The journey forward:

Now we are offering holidays in Kerala, Karnataka, Sikkim, Spiti Valley,  Sunderbans and Rajasthan. Based on the experiences from Kerala and especially River Nila about product research, implementation and destination management we have been researching and identifying destinations listed above so that our holidays benefits local people socially and economically, and creates less impacts environmentally.

We have taken extra care, time and patience to identify our activity partners in each destination. The focus was always about finding partners who were doing social business and those who were already involved in working with local people and who had the pulse of local issues. So rather than reinventing the wheel of entire destination research we developed a network of NGOs , small tour operators and knowledgeable /passionate individuals.

The above mentioned working model assures us maximum out reach and the benefits of our holidays to local individuals move from 180 in Kerala to more than 500 individuals in six destinations!

The Blue Yonder has received two highly honourable mentions at the 2007 Condé Nast Traveler  World Savers Awards and 2006 Responsible Tourism Awards at the World Travel Market in London as a tour operator for using tourism as a tool for poverty reduction and preserving and conserving local culture and tradition.

Though we are excited about these recognitions, what touched our heart most was when our community members decided to gather together in Thrissur in Kerala in Dec 2007 to give an award to acknowledge the work we are doing in Responsible Tourism. Read more