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1.Setting up a tour
Having decided that you want to explore the possibility of a
Soul of India tour for your Church or Diocese, Local
Education Authority, Interfaith Group, College or
organisation, the process is very straightforward.
An initial discussion with Soul of India will determine the
main parameters: what is the focus and ethos of the tour,
where and when will it go, and such questions as tour length
and budget. A general proposal can then be presented to your
Board, Bishop, or other decision making body, for approval.
After that, Soul of India will prepare a detailed itinerary
and costing, and a draft tour leaflet for your approval.
When the tour leaflet is printed, you can begin the process
of promoting the tour. Usually this will involve one or more
mailings, articles or notices in your organisation's
internal publications, and personal contacts. Enquiries can
be dealt with by you or by Soul of India as appropriate.
As per legal requirements, bookings and deposit payments
should go directly to Indus Tours and Travel , who will
issue the appropriate receipts and final invoices. You will
receive immediate notification of all bookings, so that you
can send a standard letter of welcome.
1.1 Your Role in Promoting the Tour
Soul of India Tours will provide leaflets and booking
forms for the tour, and Indus Tours and Travel will
take care of all the financial management. It is your
responsibility to promote the tour within the appropriate
constituency, and to try and secure the necessary number of
bookings to make it viable. You should be prepared to send
out leaflets in response to all enquiries, and to pass on a
record of all enquiries to Soul of India.
The pricing of the tour will be structured in such a way
that your place will be free, provided that the minimum
number of participants is achieved.
1.2 Your Role in Leading the Tour
Your free place also entails that you act as tour leader
when the group is in India (see 2, below). It is
important to emphasise that you do not take on any legal
responsibility by virtue of being the tour leader. Legal
responsibility for the tour always remains with the tour
operator. Your focus is on the successful management of the
group, rather than of the travel.
What qualifications, therefore, are required in a group
leader? The primary requirement is not necessarily a deep
familiarity with India, although you will probably feel more
comfortable with the role if you have visited the country
before. The main requirements are that you should be
confident and competent at handling the group, and that you
have sufficient understanding of the religion(s) on which
the tour is focussed, in order to be able to create the
right ethos and spirit of enquiry within the group. You
should also have travelled sufficiently to appreciate the
rigours and occasional exigencies of journeying outside the
Western hemisphere.
1.3 A Briefing Day
It is recommended that the group get together for an
introductory day about four to six weeks prior to departure
for India. You should arrange a suitable location and
facilities. At the briefing day, participants can introduce
themselves to each other, receive more detailed information
about the itinerary and other aspects of the tour, and ask
questions. The day also provides an opportunity to finalise
administrative questions over visas and passports.
1.4 What else can you expect from Soul of India Tours Ltd?
Every Soul of India tour is tailored to the particular
requirements of the leader and group concerned. You can
therefore always expect the individual attention that is
appropriate. Soul of India will support the process from
beginning to end, and inspire confidence in your group. We
will provide the group with individual briefing papers
relating to their travel to India, including suggested
reading, contact addresses and telephone numbers for each
place of stay, and hints on what to take with them, and what
to expect.
On conclusion of the tour we will provide individual
appraisal and feedback sheets, and any follow-up that may be
required.
1.5 ...And from Indus Tours and Travel Ltd?
Indus will provide ticketing and travel arrangements to the
highest standards, to ensure the smooth operation of the
tour. The company offers a visa procurement service for UK
passport holders, and a value-for-money insurance cover for
individual travellers if required. The company is ATOL
bonded to secure all monies paid by tour participants, and
offers standard booking conditions which are sent to all
participants with final invoices.
2. In India
Leading a group of travellers in India is challenging. It
requires constant awareness of individual and group needs
and expectations, skills of diplomacy and interpretation
between the group and the Indian context, patience, energy
and resourcefulness. You wouldn't be doing it if you did not
also believe it to be very worthwhile and rewarding.
The role is primarily one of leadership. You are the group's
figurehead, the focus of its decision making, and its
spokesperson. You are also to some extent the group's
inspiration, pastor, nanny, arbitrator, problem solver, and
general factotum.
The ethos of the journey, and - at the end of it all -
whether people believe they have had an enriching
experience, are largely down to you.
2.1 Ethos of the Journey
Soul of India tours have an ethos which is not found among
the generality of group travel to India. People sign up to a
Soul of India tour partly because they want the spiritual
engagement that Soul of India promises. It is important to
maintain this ethos as far as possible. We are encountering
a country, and cultures, which are formed by explicitly
religious traditions, and we engage with them as far as
possible on those terms. As far as possible we want to be
open and generous towards the religious and cultural
practices we encounter, even - perhaps especially - when
they are opaque or strange to us.
People will therefore often raise the question of
participation. To what extent, in a temple, mosque or
gurdwara, are they observing, and to what extent are they
worshipping? The question needs a good deal of exploration
as the journey progresses, and different people will come to
different answers. People should feel free to come to their
own views, and if there are people who want to impose their
views on the group they need to be contained!
"Pilgrimage" is an important element in the journey. Of
course that means different things to different people, but
from the point of view of leadership it means that a balance
has to be achieved between individual and group
responsibility. People have responsibility for their own
personal and spiritual explorations; they also have
responsibilities to the group. Pilgrimage is both a private
and a corporate undertaking. People have their own stories
to tell and to develop, but the group also has a story to
tell.
2.2 Travel Management
You should set some limits to your responsibility. The
travel management side of a Soul of India tour, ie the tour
operation, is the responsibility of the tour operator, Indus
Tours and Travel It is the tour operator's
responsibility, through its suppliers, agents and
contractors, to ensure smooth operation of the travel
arrangements. In India things do not always go according to
plan, and arrangements sometimes have to be adapted to
circumstances. If that happens, it is not your
responsibility to make new arrangements; but you will have
to liaise between the group and those responsible for the
tour operation.
2.3 Information and Briefing
People need to know what is happening, and what is going to
happen next. Every day you need to give a short briefing, an
introduction to the day's plan, and some information about
practical matters - eg how long is the journey, what
arrangements for lunch, etc. It is better to give briefings
little and often - you may be surprised at what people seem
to forget. It is also important to give briefings to
everyone together, and not just to a select few.
Finding the right opportunities for group briefing is not
always easy. You can give information when you are on the
bus (usually there will be an almost serviceable
microphone). You can also get people together before dinner
in the evening. You will probably need to talk to the hotel
management about finding a quiet enough place to meet in.
If the group's plans have to adapt to unexpected
circumstances, it is especially important to give people as
much information as possible. You will then become the focus
of people's concerns; it is helpful if you remain calm, and
convey your confidence that in India no problem is
unresolveable.
2.4 Culture Shock
Do not underestimate culture shock. Sometimes it hits people
the moment they step off the plane; the sights and smells,
the crowds, noise, insects and animals, can be suddenly and
unexpectedly overwhelming. More often, however, it builds up
over the first few days. People think they are coping
wonderfully, and then suddenly, after four or five days in
India, it all becomes too much.
Culture shock can have many symptoms. Often it will focus on
poverty; people may become very distressed when they
encounter beggars, or drive past slums. Sometimes it will be
expressed as extreme irritation, or anger, at Indian
bureaucracy, or at a waiter's inability to understand what
seems to you to be a simple request. It may also be
expressed as a vague homesickness, or personal angst.
Everybody suffers culture shock to some extent, unless they
are simply skating over the surface. The question is not how
to avoid it, but how to deal with it.
It is right that people should be disturbed when they visit
India. Everything challenges our assumptions about what is
right, and about who we are. Perhaps the most helpful image
is that it is akin to bereavement. And some of the same
strategies must be adopted to deal with it. Most important
is that it concerns our emotions, that it is unpredictable,
and that it simply has to be endured. Encourage people to
practise a little detachment from themselves, to stand back
from themselves, almost to observe themselves. Here are a
series of emotions taking hold of me; I won't try to resolve
them all, but just to observe them, take note, and let them
pass. That way I don't have to pass judgement on myself, or
on what I am experiencing.
It is simply not possible to resolve everything that is
happening to us, because India presents us with so much in a
short space of time. Nevertheless, some opportunity must be
given to reflect on, and to begin to process, the
kaleidoscope of experience. It is strongly recommended that,
whenever possible, at the end of each day, a decent amount
of time is allowed for the group to reflect on the events
and impressions of the day. Half an hour or an hour is
probably needed, and the best time is usually before dinner.
India is a spiritual country, and people will expect that
this period of daily reflection should be a spiritual time.
Of all the groups I have taken to India the one that coped
best with its culture shock was a group whose daily practice
was half an hour's meditation morning and evening.
2.5 Names
It may seem obvious, but one of your first responsibilities
is to know the name of everyone in the group. If the group
is large, you may need to work at it for the first couple of
days. You should also, wherever possible, know the name of
your driver and his assistant, as well as of any
representative who accompanies the group. It is also a good
idea to ask, and remember, the name of someone in authority
in your hotel. If you have a large group, for instance, make
a point of meeting the hotel's Restaurant Manager (often
called the "F and B" - food and beverages - Manager).
2.6 Food
Almost nothing is more important to a group than what it
eats. Meeting the F and B Manager can help to ensure the
group's needs are appropriately catered to.
First of all, at the beginning of the tour, you should
remind people of the "rules" of healthy eating. Everyone
should know these from their own briefing papers, but
experience shows that the more you reinforce them the
healthier the group will be. Most important is that i)
people should have clean hands when they eat, and ii) green
salad, fruit salad, ice cream and ice should always be
avoided. It is important to emphasise that discretion is
always better than dysentery. I make no exception to the
rule against salad. You can tactfully dissuade the F and B
Manager from putting all his resources into beautifully
designed salads for you.
Some members of the group are likely to have particular
dietary requirements that need discussing with the hotel.
There will rarely be a problem in catering to such
requirements.
It is a good idea to discuss meals with the F and B Manager.
They will usually respond well to your interest and
suggestions. Sometimes it is necessary to explain carefully
your expectations about meal times - especially if you need
an early breakfast.
2.7 Tips
You should explain to the group that you will take
responsibility for all tips that relate to services enjoyed
by the whole group. That means tips for drivers, guides,
porters and hotels. Individuals should take care of their
own tips for eg laundry and room service. You should collect
a reasonable sized contribution from everyone to begin with,
and then again as necessary.
Tipping is a sensitive subject, and there is no right - or
even best - way to do it. In hotels it is often better to
explain that you will tip everyone at the end of your stay,
rather than piecemeal as you go along. You want to ensure
that your tip gets to the people who have provided the
service, which is not always straightforward. My tactic (I
don't really know if it works or not) is to put money in an
envelope, to write the amount in large letters on the
envelope, with a note of thanks to say that it is for all
the hotel staff, and then to give it to a senior manager in
the presence of at least two other members of staff.
Calculating suitable amounts is not easy. In hotels you
could work out roughly the cost of your meals, then tip 10%
for the whole hotel staff. The driver of your coach will
expect between Rs 100 and Rs 500 per day, depending on the
size of your group, and how much driving he has done. There
is a huge difference in status between the driver and his
assistant, and you should give the assistant about half as
much as you give the driver - otherwise you will upset them
both.
Guides should be tipped (see below), but if you have a
representative of the travel company with you, you should
not tip them.
2.8 Guides and Shopping
All guides are licensed by the local tourist office, and
will have passed tests to prove their competence in English
and their knowledge of the places in which they are guiding.
Mostly they are competent, friendly and helpful. They are at
your disposal, so you can tell them when to talk, and when
not to, and you do not have to follow their suggestions. It
is important that you should remain in charge.
Be warned that a guide's primary interest is not in guiding.
His or her main interest is to divert you into the shops.
The guide will receive from the shopkeeper 10% of whatever
the group spends. Guiding is therefore a very lucrative
occupation, and in the main tourist centres guides are
amongst the small elite who drive their own cars and have
mobile telephones.
You need to decide how to handle the shopping issue. People
will want opportunities to shop, but they will also want
plenty of non-shopping days. Even if you have defined a day
as a non-shopping day, a guide will usually persuade people
that nowhere else will they find the opportunity that is
only available here today. In places like Agra it can be
almost impossible to enjoy what you have come to see because
of this pressure. Do not be bullied, however, either by the
guides or by those members of the group who have been
persuaded by them. If necessary, speak firmly to the guide
in front of the group. If that doesn't work, simply dismiss
the guide.
If you have a guide for the day, and there is no group
shopping, you should tip the guide (Rs300 is about the going
rate), depending on the service you receive. There is no
need to give a tip if you have been shopping with the guide.
Strictly, if a guide takes you shopping then you as group
leader are also entitled to your 10% of the spend. Most
guides and shopkeepers will work on the presumption that you
do not know this, unless you make it clear that you do. You
need to resolve these issues in your mind if group shopping
is not to be a stressful experience! (You do not, of course,
need a guide in order to shop).
A last note on shopping: In tourist centres, a vehicle full
of foreigners will be besieged by loud and insistent hawkers
as soon as it stops. You might advise the group that such
hawkers rely on pressure rather than quality to sell their
goods. People can become very weary of being constantly
assailed in this way, but if you take it all in good humour
this will help. Don't forget, of course, that it is entirely
up to individuals what they buy!
2.9 Travel, Transfers and Timing
One of the things that first impresses visitors to India is
the number of people. As India's population approaches 1
billion it often seems that most of them are sharing your
railway platform or your stretch of road. Group travel
therefore requires some attention. On a station, or in a
bazaar, people need to be reminded not to get too far
separated from the group.
You need to know - always - where all the luggage is. This
means that you need to count it at frequent intervals - in
and out of the bus, when checking out of hotels, on the
platform, etc. People should take charge of their own hand
luggage, but you should always know how many pieces of
portered baggage there are. (A group of twenty people has
nearly half a tonne of luggage, by the way).
You will be praised for efficiency of transfers. When you
reach a hotel, people will want as quickly as possible to
get to their rooms. You should therefore get room keys
without delay, allocate rooms, and give people their keys,
making a note of who is in which rooms. You can then get
people's luggage sent up after them, and then complete
check-in formalities. Most hotels will understand your
priority, and good humour on your part will get it all done
swiftly. If the process is dragging a bit, a quiet "Jaldi,
jaldi!" ("quickly, quickly"), spoken with appropriate good
humour, will speed the process up.
If your group is large it will take a surprising amount of
time simply to get everyone on and off a bus. Even if the
group is small, no-one will want to be kept waiting by one
or two late-comers, especially if it is always the same
ones. It is important that you establish a pattern of good
timekeeping, and let people know that you intend to leave at
the stated time. If someone consistently delays the group
then choose the right occasion (not when you have a plane to
catch) and leave them behind. That usually solves the
problem.
2.10 And Finally...
Don't forget that you are a member of the group, too. You
will have done a good deal of preparation in getting the
group together, and you want to enjoy your time in India.
You are a participant in the pilgrimage as well as leader.
Like everyone else, you have responsibilities to yourself as
well as to the group. That can mean setting boundaries for
other people, and if necessary telling them where to get
off. Sometimes you may need space away from the group.
Soul of India will only have succeeded if you enjoy yourself
so much that you want to do the whole thing again next year
or the year after!
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