The rise of female-led tour operators in Asia - SilverKris

"Founded by Nepalese-Australian Som Tamang and based in Cairns, this socially driven trekking company trains and employs young women as guides on treks to destinations such as Everest Base Camp, Poon Hill and the Annapurna Circuit. Beyond providing a steady income, the work is explicitly framed as a way to prevent early marriage and reduce vulnerability to traffickers by offering education, empowerment and employment; the founder highlights traffickers’ false promises to rural families as a core problem the program addresses. Individual stories, like that of 19-year-old guide Bimmaya Tamang—who avoided early marriage, is funding college with trekking income and supporting her recently widowed mother—illustrate the model’s impact. The company also runs women-only initiatives (including a fundraising women-only Everest Base Camp tour) to finance a new training and employment facility in Kathmandu to support more vulnerable women." - Silkwinds, the inflight magazine of SilkAir