The Ecosystem of Trekking Industry

With an estimated growth of CAGR 17.4% from 2017 to 2023[1], the future of the adventure tourism industry looked promising in India. Trekking, broadly falling under the category of Adventure Tourism, has experienced unprecedented popularity and can be termed as a flourishing industry in itself. India’s growing young population, social media, and change in the way people travel have taken people away from leisure travel and touristy places, contributing to the growth of trekking in India. The pristine beauty of the Himalayas and Mt. Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, attracts many international summiteers and trekkers.

Like many other industries, trekking has also been greatly affected by the COVID-19 crises. Things will probably be never like before and a ‘New Normal’ will be crafted.

Still nascent and yet to mature, the ecosystem of the trekking industry is a fine interplay of its industry players.  

Figure 1: Interplay of Industry Players in Trekking Industry.

Industry Players:

1. Trekking Companies: Organizations such as IndiaHikes, Thrillophilia, Trek The Himalayas and Adventure Nation are few of the many trekking companies in India. These companies provide complete travel packages from BaseCamp or the nearest habitable village. Apart from the solo travellers, mostly all other trekkers travel through some or the other trekking companies. These companies are the direct point of contact for the trekkers.
2. Local Community: Local Community engages with trekking in many different ways. Locals take up many roles such as Trek Coordinators, Trek Leaders, Cooks, Helpers, and Porters. Many of them work with trekking companies on a contract basis as they usually don’t have any direct connection with trekkers in terms of business leads. Trekking also provides other employment options to the locals such as setting up Dhabas on the trekking routs, clearing out snow on the trekking trails, providing Jeep transport from various pickup points, and creating a market for local art and goods. 
3. Hotels/ Homestays/ Hostels: Hub destinations are villages from where multiple trekking trails start. For example, Lohajung village in Uttarakhand serves as a base camp for many treks such as Roopkund, Brahmatal, Jatropani, Ali and Bedni Bugyal. Trekkers generally stay in such villages creating demand for Hotels, Hostels and Home Stays. These ventures again create employment for villagers. Villagers benefit by developing independent homestays, by leasing land to property developers or by partnering with developers for revenue sharing.
4. Trekking Gear Companies: Currently the second largest single brand retailer in India, Decathlon, a sporting gear company depends on Hiking and Trekking gears sales for significant revenue contributing. Decathlon and Wildcraft are the top two brands for Trekking and Hiking gear in India. Many trekking companies serve as intermediaries between trekking gear companies and the trekkers. They buy in bulk from the trekking gear companies and rent the gears to the trekkers. 
5. Government/Tax Authorities: Although the Central Government plays an important role in promoting the country’s tourism at a global level, the State Government is responsible for infrastructure, policies, promotion, and preservation of tourist places in their respective states. In August 2018, The High Court of Uttarakhand passed an order that bans overnight camping in High Altitude Meadows of Uttarakhand[2]. State orders like these greatly impact the trekking activities in the region. State government policies also affect the trekking expenses of the trekkers because of Taxes. 
6. Associations: Organizations such as Adventure Tour Operator’s Association of India[3] (ATOAI) acts as an aggregated voice of the tour operators and trekking companies. ATOAI liaisons with the governmental bodies (‘Ministry of Tourism’, ‘Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’) to put forward the concerns of the industry and help promote the industry at a global level. ATOAI also formulates Policies and Minimum Standard Guidelines for various geography-specific adventure activities. 

In an effort to survive in the 'New Normal', the trekking industry will undergo many changes. This is the perfect time to look out of changing consumer demand, introspect the business strategy and redefine the value proposition.

Expected Industry Changes:

1. Consumer mindset: People will look for less crowded places instead of mainstream travel destinations, this will increase the demand for travel to offbeat and secluded destinations. This might eventually increase the demand and popularity of trekking. Customers creating demand can be divided into 4 categories based on expected comfort and price sensitivity.

Figure 2 Consumer Categories

? Soft Adventure Travellers: These people were leisure travellers and are considering trekking as one of the options to travel to a safe and less crowded place. Trekking companies should craft short and comfortable hikes from the base camp to cater to these travellers. Comfortable accommodation and non-strenuous hikes would be of prime importance to these travellers. Depending on the fitness and enthusiasm of these trekkers, a trekking company must try to convert them into Hard Adventure Travellers. 

? Hard Adventure Travellers: They are seasoned trekkers who are looking for adventure-filled new trek trails. Trekking companies can explore new trekking trails in this lockdown so that they have new offerings for these seasoned trekkers. We can say that they are Cash Cows in a trekking company’s portfolio.

? Weekend Travellers: They are budget travellers who seek trekking for a weekend getaway. These travellers are looking for a comfortable stay away from the city, small hikes, and local sightseeing. Trekking companies should consider offering them long term deals and good travel experience.    

? Solo Travellers: Price-conscious adventure enthusiast usually travel solo to reduce the expenses of trek leaders, porters, cooks and trekking companies. To cater to such travellers, trekking companies can provide virtual assistance services.   

1. Crowd Spreading: Regardless of the category of travellers, safety would be of prime importance to the travellers. Trekking companies should limit the number of customers at one destination by distributing the crowd across multiple trekking trails. Collaboration with other stakeholders and competitors would be mutually beneficial to all the companies operating in the region.
2. Skewed Guide to Client Ratio: This can also change as people would want a more personalized and less crowded experience.  
3. Work From Anywhere: This new normal in the corporate world will mean travel enthusiasts will have the liberty to travel to remote places and work from there. Hostels and Homestays will tend to boom as against crowded mainstream hotels. Local community/villagers can utilize this time to develop spare spaces into comfortable homestays. Travellers will look for comfort, safety, hygiene, and seamless internet connectivity when searching for their ‘Work From Anywhere’ place.
4. Sustainable Trekking: People have realized the effect of pollution on our life. Incidences such as the Ganga reviving itself and the Himalayas visible from Jalandhar have created awareness about the need to reduce pollution. Customers will value trekking companies who care for nature.  
5. Standardization: There is a very low entry barrier in this industry. This is the major reason behind the problems created by mass trekking in India. But post-COVID, consumers will look for minimum safety and hygiene standards to be followed by trekking companies. Companies who can successfully signal to customers about the safety and precautionary measures followed by them will be able to attract more customers. Trekking companies will have to be compliant with the safety guidelines issued by UNWTO to attract international trekkers.

These are certainly testing times for the companies in this Industry. But those who will succeed in winning the customer trust will flourish.

Unlike luxury and leisure travel, the trekking industry retains most of the value within the community and country. It helps create jobs for the locals in the mountains. In an era when we all are talking about 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', we must understand the importance of Trekking Industry for the local community in the mountains.

References:

[1] https://www.thrillophilia.com/blog/adventure-travel-sees-jump-178-india-report-thrillophilia/

[2] https://www.news18.com/news/india/uttarakhand-govt-to-move-sc-on-high-courts-ban-on-night-stay-in-high-himalayan-meadows-2203705.html

[3] https://www.atoai.org/about-us/about-us.html