Innovation

Accommodation Shortage and Camping Model: Northeast India, being the remotest region of India, does not have adequate infrastructure for rapid tourism development. There are very limited accommodation options and the available options would get booked a year in advance. KITE MANJA saw the need of finding an alternative yet sustainable way of accommodating travelers arriving from all over the world. KITE MANJA started deploying reusable make-shift tents. KITE MANJA was offering these camping tent options way before others realized that it was possible in such a remote and hilly area of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The idea of tents also made sure that the natural beauty was kept intact and that no deforestation took place. They would find a clear area where it was peaceful and safe to camp for a few days.

Cultural Village Tour: Special expert village guides were developed by employing the local people of the villages and towns (for example – people of Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh). These guides would otherwise have been unemployed since they have very limited school education and nearly zero higher education. KITE MANJA helped in creating jobs by training them to be tour guides. This created a sustainable environment for the tribal communities and the travelers who had come from different parts of the world. This created a learning experience for both categories of people – the hosts and the guests would learn the culture of each other. There are also specific activities hosted by the tribal people as part of KITE MANJA – like an ethnic lunch at someone’s home - which created unique experiences for the travelers.

Inspiration

Jnandip Borgohain, the founder and the director says:

“Northeast is yet to be explored and promoted in the world of tourism. It's so divers in cultural and natural resources. For example, if we only mention about one state Anunachal Pradesh, Arunachal has 26 major tribes and more than 100 sub tribes. Every major tribe has its own culture, dialect and way of celebration. We felt like in our last 5 years, we might have completed only 20 or 30% of Northeast. So instead of only writing about the findings, we have taken audio visuals, photographs, as a medium to showcase and Social Media as a platform. We now have a bunch of followers from the entire country and also from few parts of the world and they follow us wherever we go.”

The main inspiration behind KITE MANJA was to give back something to the society where they grew up. The founders of KITE MANJA are people who have traveled around the world and could have done anything else they wanted to do. They are people who have studied business courses and political science in some of the highest institutions in India. But their love for Northeast India, and the fact that this region was never one of the destinations of a lot of travelers, gave them the idea of promoting everything that is possible in Northeast India. This region has enormous potential to attract international and national travelers because of the beauty of the region, the diverse culture (200 tribes), languages (220 spoken-unscripted), geographical terrain and festivals. (SDG -11)

They were also inspired to create a bigger sustainable community to promote cultural exchange within two diverse sets of people: the hosts (local regional tribes) and the guests (travelers from all over the world). (SDG -11)

The other inspiration to start KITE MANJA was to create job opportunities for the local people since the economic condition of this region has always been poor. There are very few job opportunities and no means of earning money apart from farming. (SDG 1 and 8). They trained local less educated youth to put up tents, hired drivers for long distance driving with high pay, helped other entrepreneurs to work on similar ideas, and local tribes who could speak Hindi and English were hired as guides for the tourists. These tribes would have been without any job had KITE MANJA not approached them.

Overall impact

The overall impact of KITE MANJA lies in increasing the employment of local tribes, creating a sustainable community within the Northeastern region of India and also with the travelers from all over the world. KITA MANJA also has created an impact towards other business categories such as the vendors, sales and marketing by providing their expertise and contacts. KITE MANJA also assisted companies which sprung out from their old guests.

KITE MANJA does CAPACITY BUILDING in those remote areas by:

• working with hosts of local music and food festivals
• approaching villagers to inquire whether they are ready to host people for food and cultural exchanges and by doing so earn money at the same time
• hiring local guides with good communication skills
• hiring porters for treks
• hiring helpers
• hiring cooks and local chefs

KITE MANJA’s success shows that there is a market for the forgotten part of India and it can be brought to limelight without harming or destroying the nature and the culture. At the same time it also shows the positive impact created in terms of employability and creating a sustainable community.

Jnandip Borgohain adds:

“Since we work on community based tourism model, we have our local team wherever we work. We have other team members scattered all over the Northeast. Some work full time, some work as a free lancers, some work as a volunteer. We address our team members as Kiterunners.”

He also adds:

“Sometimes I visit colleges and universities as a guest lecturer to teach the students about the tourism topics and help them in their projects.”

Business benefit

When KITE MANJA started in 2014, they had no contacts and no credibility. Since then, they have become the business partners of all the tourism and music festival organizations in Northeast India. Some of the organizations hosting the festivals are:

• Organization Ziro Festival of Music
• Organization Hornbill Festival
• Organization Tawang Festival
• Organization Machukha Adventure Festival
• NH7 Weekender
• Metropolis
• Pangsau Pass International Festival
• Shiva International Festival, etc

The stakeholders include:

• Customers – travelers from all over the world
• Suppliers – Vehicle owners, drivers, local houses of the tribes, local industries
• Employees – Cleaners, people to set up tents, local tourist guides, local cooks and chefs
• Shareholders - Jnandip Borgohain, Shyamal Nath, Nabajit Malakar , Raj Sonowal , Bitu Chetia, Thiyam Rex, Nitul Dutta, and Rahul Sharma

The company’s innovation of the business model is based on getting the locals involved to work with them. This has created an ecosystem where all the stakeholders function and co-exist together. Each stakeholder needs the other stakeholder and vice versa.

KITE MANJA also promotes other vendors, like food stalls and gift shops, to partner with them during their travel hosting events.

All the business stakeholders come together in increasing employability, cultural exchanges and reducing poverty.

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Social and environmental benefit

1- Social volunteers from all over the world come and work with KITE MANJA to do some on the ground work. These volunteers also interact with local communities and gain positive cultural experiences. The local villages who are the hosts of such volunteers also gain cultural experience and it is a win-win deal for both parties.

2- Since the local community is directly involved because of community-based tourism, awareness of cultures and business practices, youth employment, community regulations, and social control systems are getting stronger. For example, people who used to be hunters have become expert guides, and ex-poachers have become development workers.

3- No deforestation and no artificial construction on the natural landscapes has taken place because of KITE MANJA. KITE MANJA actively portrays that it is possible to be a sustainable and a highly profitable company while doing what one loves to do. They make makeshift tents and organic setups with bamboos, planks, and leaves.

4- KITE MANJA also helps and supports other budding eco-tourism companies to create a synergy towards the overall development of the land and economy.

5- Also to be noted that there has been cultural impact through the intermingling of different cultures, which provides eye openers for both the travelers and the tribes.

Interview

Jnandip Borgohain, Founder and Programme Director

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