The GHT is not a typical organisation in terms of ‘business’ behaviour, as we don’t exist to make profits, instead we are impact-driven to create positive change for remote mountain communities across the Himalaya.
What does the GHT do to support remote area, pro-poor tourism across the Himalaya, including trekkers and local operators, to be sustainable, responsible and climate-sensitive?
The GHT Walks the Talk
We document trails, digitise information and develop new routes.
The Himalaya are constantly changing, and so are the trekking routes, so we produce GPX files, maps (print and digital) that trekkers, tour operators and in fact anyone can use, even the government of Nepal uses our maps.
We train community Check-In Points
We develop teahouses as Check-In Points for GHT trekkers. The teahouse owners receive formal training, mostly about sustainable practices, as well as how to help the surrounding community best benefit from tourism.
We support female guide training
This is a new program being set up in 2026 with a new local operator, an all female company, servicing all female clients. Please get in touch if you would like more information?
We develop tools to track environmental and social impacts
So trekkers and operators can get accurate data about their field-based impacts. We are working on making a dashboard of impacts on the website, which is testing our tech skills, but we are nearly there – see the in-progress draft:Â https://www.greathimalayatrail.com/impact-dashboard/
The GHT Supports Local Tour Operators
We support tour operators, national tourism bodies, tourists and communities with information and data about impacts and sustainable tourism practices. Tour operators can apply to join the GHT Local Operators (we currently have 2 companies, soon to be 4) based in fixed criteria (outlined here:Â https://www.greathimalayatrail.com/local-operators/Â )
The operators provide data about GHT clients which is cross checked with the clients themselves before being published in our impact report, see https://www.greathimalayatrail.com/our-policies/ This means that the amount of money spent in communities is accounted for and accurate.
How does the GHT make money?
Our income is derived from selling information (maps, guidebooks, etc), and we rely heavily on volunteers and donations, as well as the Local Operators contributing collectively to in-field programs. For example, Local Operators identify Check-In Points, negotiate a contract (standardised and available on Our Policies), and make the signage and products the teahouse needs.
The GHT does not take any commissions or payments from Local Operators, we see our role as supporting their best performance. This approach creates a very strong bond between the operators and the communities. When a new tour operator wants to join the Local Operators group, the other operators interview them and they self-manage themselves.
Our Core GHT Purpose
Our primary role is as an information service provider and quality control assessor. Training and data management are our primary tools to attain our goals, which are very much about producing positive impacts and minimising or negating negative impacts in remote mountain communities.
Basically, if you want to trek anywhere in the Himalaya, we have the tools you need to do so safely and in the most responsible and sustainable manner.
We aim to be a multi-country adventure route that places sustainability and positive impacts at the heart of everything we do, and in so doing, we hope to provide a best practice example for destinations, trail managers, trekkers and operators.
GHT Community
EXPLORE. IMMERSE. CHALLANGE. TRANSFORM.
Everyone who treks a GHT ‘end-to-end’ says it transforms them… changes them on the inside and often changes their life direction. There can be few journeys in life that can so profoundly affect you, and have the potential to transform your perspectives – on yourself, the communities you live in and the world around you.
This means that the end-to-end club, that is, those folks who have walked from border to border across a Himalayan country, share something very special. You might only bump into them once in your life, but you immediately have something profound in common with each other.
Hanging out with locals in Laya, Bhutan
