Forget work from home. In India, you can work from mountains instead
- A tourist initiative being run in the Indian Himalayas is attracting workers from across the country for extended working holidays
- The model is not just revitalising guests but also small tourism operators struggling from the Covid-19 pandemic
With snow-capped mountains, adventurous trekking and alluring landscapes, the Indian Himalayan region usually attracts visitors, both domestic and foreign, year around.
The availability of short, affordable flights and overnight bus rides from India’s cities to three hotspots – Shimla, Dehradun and Manali – have facilitated a surge of tourists to the region in in recent years. In 2019, according to the Indian government, more than 16.8 million travellers visited Himachal Pradesh, a state in the lap of the Himalayas. Tourism accounts for 7 per cent of the state’s GDP.
The situation, however, changed abruptly last March, when India went into a strict 70-day nationwide lockdown in an attempt to control the spread of Covid-19. Tourist numbers to Himachal Pradesh dropped precipitously; struggling hotel owners closed their businesses.
Now, though, tourists are being drawn back to the Himalayas by the Work From Mountains (WFM) initiative.
