gINKgo I RARE India wins PATA BIG Difference Tourism Impact Award 2022

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A push towards sustainable and responsible living is dawning on our collective consciousness. RARE India is fortunate to be at the forefront with many pioneers each working in their corner of subcontinent - India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. We were able to bring them together, making it possible for the discerning traveler to join in and become a part of this celebration of India's heritage. Now with this recognition of the first ever PATA Big Difference Tourism Impact Award, we are reinforced to do more. Here is what Shobhana Jain, Head of Sustainability at RARE, has to say about the laurel.

“We thank PATA India for instituting such an award, which is most essential post pandemic when we must change the whole travel narrative and when so many people are working tirelessly to bring about a positive change.

We believe what RARE India has set out to do with the ten RARE Touchstones is critical and perhaps a way out of the destructive impact of mindless and mass tourism. If the Touchstones are implemented and adopted, it can transform travel experiences into authentic and immersive ones with a minimal ecological footprint. Moving ahead, RARE India will continue to nudge the community within and around us to continue to improve the existing responsible tourism practices, learn from each other and create a positive impact".

RARE touchstones are those attributes that set the RARE community apart to create a bubble of knowledge, ideas, interests and stories. Evolving slowly over the years and mostly set out as a side story, a slow revealing of this idea.

The pinwheel is the innocent, playful and hopeful symbolism of harnessing the energy that earth bestows upon us. A pinwheel wielding child is ecstatic with joy, movement, curiosity and unalloyed wonder.

Is that not why we all travel?

The pinwheel then is the perfect representation of travel that is light and ecstatic guiding us where the wind blows. The blades of the pinwheel that catch the wind are home to the Planet Friendly Touchstones and the folds, important for the integrity of it all, house the People Friendly Touchstones. The pivot is the human touch as a heart of two tiny thumb prints, its definition vastly expanded to be omnipotent and inclusive.

As we expand our horizons, we realise that energy though indestructible is limited only by the laws of nature. We recognize it as the canvas on which all existence plays out, ever changing in time, with time. It binds together all our ethos in a complicated tapestry understood only by those intensely aware or supremely spiritual. Preservation of heritage, building a community or conservation of wildlife, energy conservation and efficiency drive all sustainable endeavours.