How to attract the Dutch ecotourist to TATR in Central India?
At the Hogeschool Rotterdam a group of students, from the minor Citybranding, have worked on a project about ecotourism in India, commissioned by SCF (Society for Conservation of Forests) and intermediary Enviu.
SCF India (Saving & Conserving Forests in India) focuses at nature, the environment and the people living in and around Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Central India. Through education, SCF’s goal is to make the local people aware of the importance of nature in their surroundings. The lives of the tigers are closely connected to the human inhabitance of the area; therefore, it is essential that the local people support the measures for the protection of the tigers. This may only be accomplished by protecting the entire national park. (Source www.scfindia.com)
As an alternative income source SCF wants to create an ecotourism system in cooperation with the local people.
The assignment for the students was to create a marketing- and promotion plan for Dutch tourists to go on an ecoholiday in the region of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Central India.
They had to show which steps had to be taken to developed touristic activities and how to sell the ecoholiday on the Dutch market.
We will give you an impression of the end presentations on Monday January 25th.
But first, what is Ecotourism? Ecotourism is about travelling with respect for nature, culture and human rights, with no interruption in the life of the local people. Ecotourists travel to natural areas and try to conserve the local environment and show respect to the local people and culture.
Why Ecotourism? It’s important that ecotourism gets a bigger role within tourism, because if it doesn’t, it will cause radical consequences in the future for local nature and people. There has to be more awareness of the consumer that this kind of tourism is also a possibility, SCF India wants to achieve this trough marketing. And that is why SCF India asked the student of the Hogeschool Rotterdam to make a market strategy to conquer or create the sustainable holiday market.
The class was divided in five groups of five students and every group had prepared a presentation. Some groups had chosen a very creative way present their marketing plans. Others chose the more conventional way. But all of the speakers sounded like they have had their fair share of presenting.
The jury, formed of Claudia Vijge of SCF India, Robin Maat of Maatstaf Young Professionals and Francoise of Enviu, chose the best two out of five. We will describe those two.
Ecomission
Ecomission had a very strong presentation. Their main marketing strategy is the use of the internet. They want to link their TATR-vacation site to specific sites that involve information about ecotourism and they want to join homepages like Google.
Other ways to give TATR make a bigger name is to be a special in magazines like Asia and Travelution. Their last way of advertising is to sew labels in clothes and bags from TREET (the label from SCF India) and write information about TATR on the labels.
The trips that SCF India for TATR organize should have the following core themes; authenticity, nature, silence and luxury. People that want to book a vacation here, want to make a difference in the area. Ecomission advises SCF India to contact existing volunteer organizations and let them help to get volunteer projects going. It will save a lot of time and effort and the TATR-vacations can use the name of that particular volunteer organization, because they are already known and experienced.
Ecomission won one of the two first prizes, because they had an outstanding presentation and paper. It covered all the problems that they had to resolve. This first prize was a t-shirt from the label TREET, which was given by Claudia Vijge of SCF India.
Animal Life
Animal life had as biggest marketing idea two sorts of vacations that a tourist can book. One of the two was a medium organized vacation. The vacation is set to be 13 days long and the person that books this kind of vacation is assured to see a lot of nature, culture, wild life, and will have the opportunity to interact with the locals.
The other sort of vacation is called ‘Free as a bird.’ The starting point is the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve and from there on tourist can tell their local guide what they would like to see in the area.
Animal life won the second of the two first prizes because their paper had a very high quality and could immediately be used by SCF India. This first prize was a certificate from Global Minded, which was given by Francoise of Enviu.
Written by: Myrthe van den Bos and Nadia Teunissen (two highschool students of the Vrije School in The Hague who are taking an internship at Enviu this week).
