Women and the poor as best trekking guides in the Himalaya
Kathmandu (AsiaNews/ Agencies) - Since the end of Nepal's civil war, large-scale projects promoted by NGOs and international agencies have failed to alleviate the country's problems. Most people in Himalayan districts live on 2 dollars, many dying from dysentery, malaria, tuberculosis, dengue in areas visited by thousands of tourists and mountain climbers. For Lucky, Dicky and Nicky Chhetry, founders of the '3 Sisters Adventure Trekking' in Pokhara, no one has yet seen tourism as a way to lift the poor and the marginalised out of their condition.
The word 'development' has now become a buzz word among locals, but few realise its real meaning. In recent years, economists, politicians and international agencies have come up and promoted short-term large-scale projects to feed the population, but they have ignored what tourism can offer to the poor and the marginalised.
The 3 Sisters Adventure Trekking was born 2001. Its goal was to empower women in the villages around Pokhara (Gandaki, western Nepal) by finding a niche in the trekking industry, hitherto dominated by big foreign tourist companies. With the assistance of expert guides, the three sisters organised courses for women to become guides.
At the beginning, "people always laughed at us, and many women were reticent because women in tourism were viewed as sex workers," Dicky Chhetry said. "Despite the criticism, dozens of young women took the courses and became guides, achieving a degree of financial independence that allowed them to study and be free from their families."
After the civil war and the fall of the monarchy, the small company went full throttle. By 2008, it represented 52 per cent of all tourists in the Pokhara region, becoming the leading actor in the sector.
Women remain its main customers. "Some female trekkers are uncomfortable with male guides and so turn to ours," the three sisters explained.
According to the 2009 Nepal Tourism Sector Analysis, tourism became the leading industry in Nepal in 1983. However, Nepal still ranks only 112 out of 139 countries analysed in the 2011 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report by the World Economic Forum.
The reason for this low score is the lack of interest by the authorities in the sector, the country's poor infrastructure and the absence of a marketing strategy. What is more, local authorities do not provide incentives to tourism nor security, forcing foreigners to rely on foreign agencies.
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