Wanderlust Travel Awards 2010: Eureka! Award for Travel Innovation
Wanderlust team | Issue 110 | March 2010
Mahindra Homestays
www.mahindrahomestays.com
In 2010, we’ve introduced the ‘Eureka!’ award, wholly undemocratically selected by the Wanderlust team. There’s nothing new about homestays – most travellers have a tale of sleeping in someone’s spare room – but traditionally they’ve been tricky to book in advance, and hit-and-miss in quality. Mahindra’s brilliant idea is a professional, user-friendly portal for hundreds of Indian homestays, enabling to travellers to book with ease, and homeowners to directly benefit from tourism. Affordable, sustainable and offering an unbeatable insight into local life, it’s a model many destinations could and should copy.
Runners-up
Befriend a gorilla on facebook (www.friendagorilla.org)
Uganda’s Wildlife Authority uses social media to raise money and awareness for Great Apes
The Book Bus, Zambia & Ecuador (www.thebookbus.org)
Who knew a mobile library could make such an inspirational journey?
Sub-£250 netbook computers
Cheap, fast and increasingly powerful – travel technology is coming of age