10-part wildlife series

The Travel Operators for Tigers India Wildlife Association will conduct a 10-part series of virtual tutorial starting from January 13, 2021 to educate the trade about wildlife.

Hazel Jain

TOFTigers is a collective campaign and global alliance that includes stakeholders such as governments, communities and travellers to spread awareness about sustaining wildlife. Leading this initiative in India is Ritu Makhija, Sustainability Manager, Green Team, Travel Operators for Tigers India Wildlife Association. She says, “We have planned 10 sessions for this starting from January 13, 2021. The idea about the sessions is to share knowledge by industry leaders who are part of our membership and reach out to the entire travel community. In the past, we have done sessions on topics such as destinations, digital marketing, sustainability and conservation.”

The focus of these virtual sessions is to share the good practices of sustainability and responsible tourism, and how the travel trade can apply this in their operations, she explains. “The Sustainability Awareness Tutorials are focused at the Indian travel trade community such as DMCs, tour operator owners as well as their sales team to help them in designing itineraries. These can also benefit accommodation providers and tourism boards. The sessions will be focused on understanding the need for greater sustainability in designing and building travel programmes. It has monetary and ecological value to both travel companies as well as travellers, along with the destinations who receive visitors,” Makhija adds.

Sharing her views on how wildlife can be one of the emerging trends of 2021, she says, “Ecotourism is the fastest growing and covers nature-based tourism, but also rural or wilderness destinations in outdoor environments. Post COVID, the desire for better ecologically focused travel appears to be the net beneficiary of the pandemic.”

For more details on the sessions, please refer to the 2021 calendar ahead.