Who We Are

Gopi founded The Blue Yonder in 2004 as part of his journey to promote the unique river valley civilisation of Nila in Kerala (Bharatapuzha). A keen promoter of sustainability and a believer in social entrepreneurship, he transformed The Blue yonder into a travel company that creates a positive impact in both hosts’ and guests’ lives. A pioneer in Responsible Tourism, he identifies projects and destinations to work with and then transforms them into immersive travel experiences. With his untiring efforts he has created such destinations across India, from Kerala to Rajasthan. He is a founding board member of Asian Ecotourism Network and one of the judges for the prestigious National Geographic World Legacy Awards. Gopi co-founded the Responsible Tourism Networking to bring together like-minded people in the travel industry. He also represents The Blue Yonder in its capacity as official Sustainable Tourism partner at ITB Berlin and ITB Asia.

Often called the poor man's doctor, the man who introduced the world to community-based palliative care, Dr. Suresh has been closely associated with The Blue Yonder since inception. After years of being at the helm of palliative care movement in Kerala, he joined The Blue Yonder board as a Director in charge of our Social Initiatives. While continuing to be involved in spreading palliative care to the least developed and developing countries of the world, Dr. Suresh's focus is to scale-up and replicate The Blue Yonder way of business, where we use tourism as a tool for development. For the rest of us at The Blue Yonder, it's an honour to have him on board especially considering that the 4Cs of Collaboration, Co-Creation, Consultation and Crowd-Sourcing that we hold close in our model came from the social enterprise model he promoted in the last 20 years.

There's no one who can parallel Prakash’s knowledge of Kerala for sure! His incisive journalistic curiosity and his skill in extracting a story from just about any bystander are legendary. A founding trustee of Nila Foundation, he has travelled to almost every nook and corner of Central and Northern Kerala; in fact, there’s hardly a village he doesn’t know. Usually quiet, when he does talk, Prakash always leaves us captivated. Anyone who has travelled with him knows that Prakash has the rare but innate ability to tell a story in such a way that he completely transports you and makes you a part of the story. An ardent fan of folk culture, Prakash can give insights into the enigmatic human-Gods of Northern Kerala – The Theyyams. He is the community connector who identifies most of the initiatives that have won us accolades, including '8 Great Trips' by Conde Nast Travelers.

Always calm and composed, Anoop can show you around every nook and corner of the beautiful mountain region of Wayanad in North Kerala. Any traveller would love to be accompanied by such a trusted and knowledgeable tracker and guide who’ll take you from rainforest trekking to water fall trails to bamboo rafting. “Being able to show my world to people from different cultures and nationalities is an experience in itself” he proudly says.

Gopi was born and brought up in the Auroville International community near Pondicherry. A natural story teller, Gopi found us when he was on a break last year, trying to discover what he wanted to do instead of working as a visual communicator. We heard about him from common friends who kept saying we had to meet “this Gopi who talks your same language and whose vision is to bring out the beauty of Auroville to the outside world while ensuring that Auroville opens up to innovative sustainability practices from elsewhere. There can't be a better marriage”. This interaction resulted in him setting up a travel unit called 'Payanam' within Auroville, nurtured by us at The Blue Yonder, where he wants to use tourism as a powerful tool for social change. Gopi is an excellent photographer and is passionate about 'Earth Healing'. He wants to replicate The Blue Yonder model of doing business in different parts of the world.

We are not exaggerating when we say that it's difficult to walk with Moni in Pondicherry without having about a hundred people from all walks of life nodding to him or acknowledging him. 'Bro' to most people, from pizza delivery boy to call centre executive, he has done it all. Until recently he was travelling with groups to places in South India, assisting different travel companies on assignments because of his fluent French. Moni's knowledge of Pondicherry is not easy to match. Whether it's the French, Tamil or Muslim quarter or the flower market, he will have a story or two to tell when you walk with him. Moni is the 'go-to' person for us when it comes to getting things done in Pondicherry. He runs walking tours and heritage in both English and French.

Sneha is primarily responsible for responding to guest enquiries. She is the voice that connects to our partners in destinations. Born and brought up in Pondicherry, Sneha has a couple of years’ expertise in content generation and social media communication. A born communicator, Sneha loves to travel and sees herself travelling alone to different parts of the world one day.

Venkat came to know of The Blue Yonder when he attended a guest lecture as part of his MBA in tourism at the University of Pondicherry. He is currently part of the team transforming social initiatives in Pondicherry into unique travel experiences.

Dhinesh is passionate about cooking! Not just cooking, but to see how his passion can facilitate preservation of traditional knowledge of local, seasonal and sustainable food products and recipes. Trained in tourism, hospitality and event management, he is our connect with community organisations when it comes to culinary trail. As is the case with most of us, he plays the key connector role between communities as well as our travellers.

It all started with Spicy who was our Resident Guest Relations Manager. He was based in our Pondi office. We found him on Christmas eve, tied to a cartwheel and has been with us ever since. Unfortunately, he met with an accident when we ran out of the building. We adopted two other strays and now they are our lives.