Tag Along is a Tourism and Hospitality business owned by sister duo Manisha and Bhavana Sharma who are currently based out of Gangtok. Both of us while travelling has travelled like backpackers and value all the experiences that await when you travel slow. However, with this travelling style you kind of hit or miss on experiences too, depending on how much of research you have done around these places as well as how lucky you are to meet the right kind of people who give you genuine and great travelling advice. This was our biggest motivation to start “Tag Along Backpackers”, to cater to slow travellers, to help them have the best experiences that the place has to offer.
After studying adventure tourism in New Zealand and working as a Customer Relation Manager, Manisha returned to her hometown to work as a consultant. She worked on training trekking guides and later on moved to train homestay owners in the rural parts of Sikkim. Her working experience helped her identify and understand the untapped potential of rural tourism which could not only sustain but thrive on its own. With the eagerness and vision, to connect the community of homestay owners; guides; porters; vehicle owners; to a travel community who are on a lookout for genuine services, we started Tag Along in the year 2017. Meanwhile, Bhavana who had a corporate job in Delhi was involved remotely with the setup of Tag Along and later on joined “Tag Along” full time in 2018.
Our past experience of working at grass root level conducting trainings at villages for homestay owner and guides helped us understand the scope of tourism better. It was while organizing one such training along with the Silk Route villages we got inspired by the Zuluk loops to start something crazy and never done before, a cycling experience along the Silk Route. We did a recce and in less than a year organized our first Ride The Silk cycling tour and we continue to do so till date. Travelling has inspired us to work alongside the local communities and create niche genuine experience for customers.
This pandemic has really given us a lot of time to ponder and look around us and within ourselves. We should take this opportunity to bring changes within ourselves to see a trickle effect in the long run. The way we travel, the way we consume, the way we live. It will change and has to change. Let’s be open and accepting of these changes. One of the most important thing that we as a generation have to do is change how we have neglected our environment. Everything that we do we should think about it’s impact on the environment and explore for sustainable alternatives. It really starts from one small thing and you will be amazed at how it will be able to change the world around us.
