We travel because it helps us to reenergize ourselves. We travel because we learn new things, we get a chance to explore the world, to understand other people and their culture, and to be a part of their world. Travel is not a mere vacation. It is a passion/therapy/expedition of learning and finding a path for self.
The World Tourism Day – History & Significance
World Tourism Day is observed on 27th September every year led by the World Tourism Organization worldwide. It is a day to raise awareness about the growth of the Tourism Industry and how it plays a significant role in the Economic Growth of any country.
Let us take a brief look at World Tourism Day, history, significance, and themes.
History: International Union of Official Travel Organisation (IUOTO) held a special assembly in Mexico City on 27th September 1970 and adopted statues of the World Tourism Organisation. Then, UNWTO decided in late September 1979 to introduce World Tourism Day which was celebrated the first time on 27th September 1980.
Themes: In 2017, the theme was ‘Sustainable Tourism’, in 2018, the theme was ‘Tourism and Digital Transformation’ in 2019, the theme was “Tourism and jobs: a better future for all” and this year, in 2020, the theme is ‘Tourism and Rural Development’
Hosting Country – In October 1997, the UNTWO General Assembly decided to designate a host country for each year to celebrate World Tourism Day along with the organization. This was decided in the twelfth session in Istanbul, Turkey. Last year, in 2019, India was the hosting country with the theme of Tourism and jobs: a better future for all.
This year in 2020, for the first time a group of countries will be hosting World Tourism Day. The theme is, ‘Tourism and Rural Development.’ The countries selected for celebrations are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
How did the pandemic affect Tourism?
We all are aware of the prevailing situation created due to COVID-19. The outbreak of this viral disease compelled nearly every government of several Countries to have a nation-wide lockdown for months. The lockdown affected the Industrial growth, and Tourism Industry is the one adversely affected. But it was enforced for our good.
Today, on World Tourism Day, let us celebrate the travelers who are the sole medium of transformation and building of the Tourism Industry. Here, We, The Uncommon Box, is presenting to you 10 Uncommon Travelers about whom you would love to read.
#1 Gaurav Chaudhary @gcdgr8
Gaurav is from a small town called Pilani in Rajasthan. He did his schooling from Birla Public School, Pilani, and then went for his Engineering studies to LNCT, Bhopal. He is a Mechanical Engineer. As soon as he completed his studies, he started working as a Procurement and Supply Chain professional in Oil and Gas Sector and has worked across various countries.
For Gaurav, traveling is like a bug, once it bites you then there is no stopping. He envisioned that he would visit a city or countryside and would feel that beautiful landscape through his photography skills! So, when decided once then why to wait?? So, he gradually started planning trips with the idea of photography.
How did he fall in love with photography? Well, here is the story – He got excited about photography after using a camera in 2016 when he was on vacation at Goa. While he was basking under the night sky in one of the days during his trip, he saw the night sky and at that moment he got an urge to learn photography.
He remembers his first solo trip was in the United States of America in 2018. As he landed at JFK Airport and felt like he was lost…oh no! After all, it is not easy to visit any foreign land without having proper knowledge about the place. Feeling lost is normal!
Though his school friends came to visit him in his hotel and also took him for New York darshan the very another day, still he felt lost! Finally, Social Media came to his rescue. One of his, Instagram friends offered him help and take him around some cool photography spots. He went to those places and this time the feeling was beyond explanatory. It was peaceful.
Gaurav has traveled 17 countries till now. He plans his trips on the bases of the flight and also as per the availability of leaves from work. According to Gaurav, Solo traveling helps us to know ourselves better and help us how to be confident and overcome different challenges. It helps us to gain self-worth and self-confidence. Solo traveling enables a person to realize that he/she can achieve more than he/she could have ever imagined. He further added every parent should encourage their child to travel. Traveling is a part of the enlightenment and development of young students. It helps them to get a better perspective towards life.
Thoughts on Pandemic: Gaurav thinks that because of the pandemic the travel industry had suffered more and now it won’t be the same as before. Now he feels like each traveler should act responsibly and help the local tourism by promoting them and helping them to sustain. He promotes the “#VocalforLocal”.
Gadgets: Gaurav started to use Nikon D750 at first, then he switched to Sony A7III camera and have 3 lenses (17-28mm, 28-75mm and 100-400mm). He mostly uses Photoshop for editing the pictures.
#2 Divyakshi Gupta @divsigupta
A freelance blogger and social media consultant Divyakshi Gupta is from Mumbai, India. She has her blog which she started in 2006 www.quirkywanderer.com. She is an MBA and was working as a Strategic Planner at DraftsFCBUlka. She was the first Indian travel blogger to be featured by wordpress.com in 2016.
She had led #DoorsofIndia campaign for Tata steel in 2017. It was a digital campaign covering the stories of the Iconic door across India. The campaign won several accolades and was also featured in many portals and dailies. She has been featured by Travel & Leisure Asia, Holidify, Tripoto, Thrillophilia, Treebo, Asian Paints, Midday, Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, Indian express.
She also loves public speaking and mentoring. So mostly she does workshops on Travel Blogging and photography in Mumbai. She had given over 50 Travel talks and panel discussions as well, including Photography sessions in the Photographic Society of India, a TED x unplugged talk on Passion to Paycheque, OTM 2018, Times Travel Festival 2019, Mumbai Travel Fest 2020, and guest lecturers in B schools like SP Jain, Ruia college, VESIMSR, MUMBAI university on digital marketing, social media, and advertising. She had collaborated with many tourism boards internationally and nationally.
By the introduction, we can say that she is one of the best examples of a traveler. She proved that being a traveler can bring many opportunities and achievements in your way.
She has been a keen travel lover since her childhood. She is not used to traveling solo but enjoys solo moments in each trip and cherishes them.
Her first solo trip was to Pondicherry in 2015. Travel seems like an escape earlier to her but now it seems like the best source of learning. She loves to travel with people having similar interests as her. She says, “I have learned so much from trees to architecture to history to wildlife”! She always tries to plan her trips in the offseason. As she is a full-time travel blogger, she managed to gain enough money sources to travel. She takes workshops, guest lectures, and many more.
Her inspiration for her travel came from her mother. Her mother has been imbibed with a love for nature and travel at a very young age. Her mother was so instrumental that she uses to take them for road trips in India. It was at that time when she fell in love with traveling.
Thoughts on Pandemic: She thinks that the main challenges are to keep our self positive and mentally sane in this period. While there is so much uncertainty around, we need to pull ourselves together and hope for the best. Another challenge is balance work: having to do everything with no house help is the BIGGEST challenge for her. She took this pandemic period to create and to learn so many things and make her pandemic productive.
Gadgets: She started my traveling documentation with Sony H10, after that Nikon D3100 and then Sony A6300. She mostly used her I phone. And currently, invested in Gimbal and Go Pro Hero 7.
Instagram | Twitter | FB Page | Blog
#3 Upendra Vikram Singh @Bharat_gram
Upendra is basically from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh. He was working for the Ministry of Home Affairs and now wants to join his core area of work as a Geologist. He was fond of the beauty of India’s landscapes, and from his college days, he was into traveling.
When he was pursuing Geology, one of the subjects provided the geological excursion conducted every year by his University. During that time, he got into traveling even more. The immense pleasure after the culmination of the trip used to immerse him completely.
When he was in his training period in Mussoorie, he got first prize for Winter Line Photography in the Academy. Then he got posted at Ladakh. Some of the places he visited were at Ajmer, Jabalpur, Rishikesh, Almora, and Solan in between 2005-2010.
He feels that when it’s come to solo traveling or with family and friends, every type of trip has its pros and cons. He considers Solo Traveling as the best option for him. Solo traveling provides flexibility with time, accommodation, etc.
Today, he has traveled throughout India. He has covered so many places in India like Ladakh, Jammu& Kashmir, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Tamilnadu, Goa & Maharashtra. While being in a job, whenever he gets chances of conference meetings or field visits, he tries to cover up nearby places. Along with this, he tries to cover at least 2 trips in a year of 7-8 days.
He tries to keep his budget specific, but never hesitate to do things like Paragliding, Parasailing, Scuba Diving, etc. even if it cost a bit high. His inspirations are the beautiful places that he has visited and captured them. His family and friends are supportive of his passion for traveling, and they encourage him to do so, which inspires him so much. Besides this, he follows some good travelers on Instagram from which he gets to learn about a lot of things like perspectives and aesthetics. He mentioned some of his followings from where he gains knowledge about traveling and photography, and they are Jord Hammond, Karl Shaukar, Abhinav Chandel, Navneeth Unnikrishnan, and many more. He also watches to love some feeds of wildlife photographers such as Shaaz Jung, Varun Aditya & Sudhir Shivaram.
Thoughts on Pandemic: He thinks that while facing pandemic we must avoid travelling and keeping patience and try to learn and polished some technical skills and also spend some time with family and friends.
Gadgets: He is using Canon EOS 700D with two lenses- 18-55mm (kit lens) and 55-250mm and Samsung Galaxy M30 mobile phone for capturing pictures. He also wishes to buy an action camera like GoPro Hero 8 Black. For editing the pictures, he uses Lightroom mobile and Snapseed.
#4 Diana and Donald @naughtyandcurly
A full-time working couple from Mumbai, India, Diana & Donald are happily married for seven years and had been in a relationship of 15 years. This loving couple is very passionate about traveling.
Diana is working for an IT company, and Donald is working for a Travel Company. They both had traveling bugs since they were a kid. Donald’s dad was a serviceman who needs to commute with a family to many places when he was young. Diana had a dream in aviation but eventually didn’t work out but the love for travel grown widely. Her travel love became a passion when she saw the panoramic beauty of Ladakh and the magnificent Himalayas.
While dating, this couple enjoyed many trips near their city. They had short trips to nearby places like Matheran, Lonavala, Khandala, Alibaug, Mahabaleshwar, and Karjat was in Maharashtra. After their marriage, they went to Rajasthan in 2015 for a week where they covered Jaipur and Udaipur. After that, they frequently started traveling in different states of India.
They try to plan four trips in a year by managing weekends and national holidays. They have never taken any paid leave and always saved those for their trips. Till now, they have covered 16 Indian States and 6 Union Territories and have a dream to cover up the whole of India someday. They also have explored some International destinations such as Thailand, Maldives, and Dubai. Their trips are budget friendly as they do not prefer to spend money unnecessarily on expensive hotels, etc. One of the best trips they had was to the Maldives.
Thoughts on Pandemic: They know how pandemic has badly affected India in all the streams. They have even lost one of the loved ones due to COVID. So, they have the realization, and they believe that travel can wait for now.
Gadgets: They have been using Nikon D5100 at first with an 18-55mm lens. After that, they started to use GoPro 3+, and for wildlife photography, they used the telephoto zoom lens Nikkor 70-300mm. They also have wide-angle lens Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 for landscape photography. Recently they have been using GoPro Hero 8 Black. They have been using Adobe Lightroom and Snapseed for editing pictures and Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing. For short videos, they use the Inshot app on mobile.
Instagram | Website | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Shop
#5 Faizan Ahmed @photubaaz
Let us know about the journey of our hard working uncommon traveler Faizan Ahmed.
He is from a village in Mathura district. He belongs to a typical middle-class family. His father is a schoolteacher, and his mother is a home-maker. A Delhi University graduate, working with an American MNC as an Operations Analyst, Faizan had loved traveling since his childhood.
Being in Mathura, a tourist destination of India, he got a chance to witness a lot of travelers and tourists coming to visit the city from around the world. He remembers once a traveler told him that, “There is nothing better than traveling, each place has its different vibe and you need to taste it.”
He realized his love for traveling when he was in school and went on a trip to Amritsar, Punjab. He loved clicking pictures while traveling so, from then, he decided to go with travel photography.
He went on a trip to Rishikesh with his college friends and it was his first independent trip ever! Faizan believes that traveling with a group is much better and helpful. He traveled nearly 14 states in India and more to come. He never took a single penny from his parents to pursue his passion. He always worked hard to get the money by doing part times jobs or giving tuitions when he was in his academics. He always prefers budget-friendly trips. While working, he saves his leaves and makes travel plans, and with God’s grace, he has a good supporting manager which allows him to live his passion.
Thoughts on Pandemic: He thinks safety is more important than any other thing. So, in this pandemic period keep patience and save money for future trips.
Gadgets: Currently he is using Canon 1200d DSLR and GoPro Hero 7 Black with special kit edition. He also has Realmex2 smart phone. He also carry gorilla tripod. He is planning to buy a full frame mirrorless camera and a drone especially DJI Mavic mini drone soon. For editing the pictures, he uses Lightroom PC software, Lightroom mobile and Snapseed app.
#6 Tejal Nahar @hazeltejal
A girl from Pune, India, Tejal Nahar who is a full-time practicing Architect, has a passion for traveling since she was a kid. She traveled a lot during her academics that changed the definition of traveling for her. From relaxation and enjoyment, it became a source of learning. During her old days, she used to with groups of friends and family. But as time passed, planning got difficult as everyone got busy with their life chores. It was then when she started solo traveling – a new chapter as a traveler!
Traveling solo gave her a new perception. It gave her freedom with her routines and planning. It gave her a sense of confidence and agility.
In a year she tries to plan a couple of long trips and at least 5-6 short trips. Till now she has travelled around 55-60 or cities. Few, she has revisited 3 to 4 times.
Thoughts on Pandemic and travel: Tejal thinks that because of a pandemic it’s difficult to travel. Reason being the social distancing and being safe. She further added, if one cannot travel physically, they can travel virtually by reaching out on social media platforms, watching travel shows, and reading travel books.
Gadgets: Tejal uses her iPhone and Sony Alpha A6000 camera for capturing pictures and stories. Mostly she prefers iPhone because it’s convenient to use. She also learned a few editing software’s like Lightroom, Snapseed, and VSCO to edit pictures.
#7 Shubham Ganbote @Puneri_Shutterbug
Here our next traveler Shubham Ganbote aka @Puneri_Shutterbug from Pune, India. He was basically from Baramati but from many years he is living in Pune. He is in Germany pursuing his MBA.
During his Engineering days, he was into trekking and had trekked major trekking destinations of Maharashtra. One of his memorable treks was of Toran fort. It was his first experience too. He remembers how it was adventures and breath-taking experience. During that time, he also started photography.
His first international solo trip was to Malaysia and Singapore. He was not that much aware of those cities but to gain lifetime experience he took a step and booked the flights from his job savings and then he declared to his parents that he will be going to have an international solo trip! Like any other Indian parent, they got worried but somehow that trip did happen. Both cities gave him a lifetime experience. The guy who was not able to do his work on his own went on a solo trip and managed all the things! It was a great achievement for him.
Slowly he inculcated more confidence and started capturing moments with a camera too. Till now he had covered up 9 countries and soon he was planning for 10th. But the Pandemic changed it all.
Still, as the situation is getting under control in Germany, through his part-time job savings, he is enjoying his small trips now and then. He got the inspiration for traveling from his father. How his father being an advocate tried to manage his hectic schedule and took out some time for relaxation while traveling with friends, amazes him.
In the interview with us, he said he believes in this – “explore the city while you can, else you are going to regret it.” He totally applies that in his real life.
Thoughts on Pandemic: Shubham advice to adapt the new normal and try to visit nearby places which are unexplored and make memories with those.
Gadgets: Shubham is using One Plus 7T for capturing pictures and planning to buy drone and latest GoPro soon. He uses Lightroom and Snapseed for editing pictures and sometimes Photoshop also.
#8 Anand V S @iwishiwerelenseyed
Anand was born in Kochi, Kerela.
His father was working for a nationalized bank, so they had to transfer every three years. This gave him a chance to pursue his schooling from different cities of India. His mother is a homemaker, and his younger sister is working in an IT Company. He completed his school and college from Nagpur.
He had loved traveling since he was a kid. In childhood whenever he went on family trips traveling through trains and buses, he always tried to grab window seats and feel the breeze on his face. Every summer they end up their trip to Wayanad and Kochi. Mostly they preferred road trip to Wayanad and Kochi. The road trip gave them chance to witness the surrounding Nature.
He had traveled a lot in India and covered many states. He loves to travel so he never compared any type of trip. But as he travels a lot he chooses to travel solo and solo trips have its indulgence and freedom. He always uses public transport whenever he travels alone because it’s cheapest and so on his plan starts with roughly itinerary and round trips and that is from the initial to the final destination. He generally avoids pre-booking the details. He is a kind of adventurous traveler.
He works as a Freelancer so, managing time is easy for him but it is hard to manage with money. But that could not stop him from traveling. He got his ways – He cut down his luxuries things on daily basis to pursue his passion for traveling.
To him, traveling is not just a trip but love to learn and gain many things in life. At first, his parents were sceptical and did not understand him but after time passed, they saw his love and dedication for traveling and eventually started encouraging him.
Thoughts on Pandemic: He thinks that each person should take precaution while travelling and also prefers local opinions before travelling. And always take safety major seriously.
Gadgets: He has Canon 1200D DSLR with a 18-200mm lens and Samsung M30s smart phone. He uses Snapseed and Lightroom for editing pictures.
#9 Kiran Kumnoor @little_detours
Kiran Kumnoor aka KiKu is a software engineer by profession working at IT Hub in Bengaluru. He was born and brought up in Gulbarga Karnataka.
He always had an instinct about traveling that it is his thing. He loved traveling since his college days. He used to read travel blogs and try to gain information. Back then, the idea of traveling was too vague, and some fewer people had documented their travel journeys and itineraries. He went on a solo trip in 2013 and he realized how he was opened to himself and the world. It was his first time when he felt a good different and that hit him hard and it made him travel more and more just to explore and discover himself with the world.
As he is a solo traveller, he feels that solo traveling is much better because one gains so much from it. He says that after having seven years of experience in solo traveling, it is the best way to find yourself. Solo traveling allowed him to see the world through in his own eyes, unfiltered. He thinks that while traveling in a group you get easily influenced by other’s choices. Solo traveling makes you realize your responsibilities.
He has travelled around Karnataka, South India, and Himalayan regions like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal, Sikkim, and also went for a backpacking trip to Rajasthan. He had experienced some of the high-altitude Himalayan Treks- Sandakphu trek and Rupin pass trek of 15,500 ft. He also loves adventure sports like he tried Ziplining, Kayaking, Flying Fox, and Bungee Jumping. He wants to try Sky diving which is his dream. His journeys are unplanned. While traveling he tries to stay in hostels and save as much he can, and he preferred eating at local restaurants which helps local people to gain something, and also, it’s affordable to him. He has many inspirations, but he most follows Hrishikesh Birkule, whose blog had inspired him to ride to Ladakh and his blogs are always full of life. And it was his starting in the blogging world. They both are now good friends, and he wishes to meet his inspiration one day.
Thoughts on Pandemic: On this perspective, KiKu thinks that people should avoid travelling and if they want to help travel industry then they can pay in advance and get the coupon which they can avail later.
Gadgets: He currently have some of gadgets like, Go Pro Hero 6, DJI Mavic Pro 2 Drone, Nikon D3400 camera, and a mobile phone to capture photos along with a large tripod to capture night sky and a small tripod to capture quick time-lapse.
Social media Links:
Instagram | YouTube | Website | Facebook | Pinterest
#10 Priyanka Telang @travel_o_some
A very passionate traveler Priyanka Telang hails from Uttar Pradesh India. Her father was working with a Bank, as a family, they had to transfer frequently so, she has completed her schooling from different schools and places in India.
She remembers, when she was just nine years old, her parents took her for 22 days of holiday. It was a planned vacation/travel in many different states like Gujarat, Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh, etc. Further, she added, she discovered her interest in photography when she was 13 and how she demanded an Olympus camera as her birthday gift. She considers herself a scholar of her life because she is always full of life and wants to achieve many things in life. Travelling helped her to sustain the same. She said, traveling lets one explore many places and meet new people, cultures, traditions, lifestyles. She remembered her first independent trip to when she went to Chandigarh for her training. There she roamed around the city and enjoyed her time peacefully solo. Her journey from that solo trip to Shimla to the Foreign Trip of the UK was incredible. Till now she has visited 20 countries and sometimes she revisits some of her favorites ones like, Scotland nearly 8 times and always had a different and amazing experience.
She makes her plans according to her places for example, if she is going to travel to Spain, then she will go with the planning of a road trip and if it is going to Thailand, then she will plan as per luxury and other things. Though She is working with an IT company, she had always managed to travel. She is a big fan of Bear Grylls and following him since she was young. She inspired by him a lot and besides that, the encouragement she gets from her cool parents also inspire her more. She thinks that she missed the chance of being a travel influencer even though she had a great experience and achievements in traveling.
Thoughts on Pandemic: Pandemic is of course the worst. She already had so many travel plans which could not get accomplished due to it/ But on the brighter side, being in quarantine gave her ample of time to enjoy me time in a different way, like, brainstorming and doing DIYs, writing travel stories, revisiting her photographs and also start sincerely blogging.
Gadgets: She started with DSLR Nikon D60 then upgraded to D5100, and later to D5300 which stills she using. She has a Go Pro which was gifted by her sister.
Instagram | Blog | YouTube channel
Wrapping Up
The Uncommon Box has always tried to come up with something out of the Box! These amazing 10 travellers opened their hearts out for us, and we got a chance to bask in every word of them. We hope you have also enjoyed reading them.
At last, we convey our gratitude to every Travel Photographer featured in this blog for taking out their time and helping us making this possible on the World Tourism Day.
The article is Written by Devyani Joshi. Her Instagram id is @dj_writeups
The article is Edited by Alisha Srivastava. Her Instagram id is @yeah_me_alisha
The article is Curated by Vaibhav. His Instagram id is @frameshade
You can follow “THE UNCOMMON BOX” at the following social channels
Instagram | FB Page | Fb Group | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube | Telegram
Beautifully done. Congrats to all the travellers.