Preservation of the Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage through Tourism

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Preservation of the Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage through Tourism

Mongolia
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Nomadic Melodies: Preserving the Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage by operating musical tours and implementing different actions.

Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address

Building #7/1-102, Erkhuu Street, 7 Khoroo, 11th Khoroolol, Sukhbaatar Distrist

City

Ulaanbaatar

State/Province

Ulaanbaatar

Postal/Zip Code

976

Country
Year innovation began

2007

Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant

Quality of benefit to the people of the desitination

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http://www.tourmongolia.com/nomadicmelodies.flv

Indicate sector in which you principally work

Tourism-related business

Geographic location

Rural, Desert, Mountain, Multiple locations.

Plot your innovation within the Mosaic of Solutions
Main barrier addressed

Lack of collaboration

Main insight addressed

Develop community assets

Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation?

Preserving the Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage by operating musical tours and implementing different actions.

How does your approach support or embody geotourism?

We are aiming to keep alive traditional sounds which nowadays tend to the extinction (because of the lack of interest of people and younger generations in it, because of globalization, and also the non-profit value of the activity in the local areas). For reaching this goal, we are the first and only Mongolian Tour Operator which has initiated Musical Tours in order to make local nomads keep their traditions alive.

Describe your approach in detail. How is it innovative?

It is only by showing interest in the traditions that we might be able to preserve them. Facing globalization, we are making it possible by sending elite small groups of highly interested tourists to the communities, to learn this culture; we are also at this point benefiting to the local nomads an income by playing their instruments and sharing their traditions.

What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?

We are now collaborating with a NGO, "Khunnu Tsuur - Mongolian Folk Music Association". We could easily cooperate with partners that would be able to give us the marketing and advertising tools necessary to develop the project.

Impact
In one sentence describe what kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.

We are aiming to keep alive the real Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage.

Describe the degree of success of your approach to date. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How does your approach minimize negative impacts? 200 words or less

Many people interest the project and implement ideas in order to develop it. We measure our impact by only sending small groups of well aware and highly interested people. A percentage of the benefits is going to to the "Khunnu Tsuur - Mongolian Folk Music Association", which is passing this cultural knowledge to the Mongolian youth.

How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?

The rate of the Musical Tours already attracts a selected "niche" market. By sending those "highly interested" tourists in learning, to "highly interested" local communities in teaching, showing and sharing their heritage, we make sure to promote the satisfaction, experience and enhancement of both sides.

In what ways are local residents actively involved in your innovation, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?

Only few people in Mongolia can nowadays share their ancestral musical heritage. By involving few tourists and local residents in the sharing of this culture, we are on one hand providing an income to those local communities ( income based on the sharing of their culture; so encouraging in the same way the continuation of this knowledge to younger generations), and on the other hand preserving directly the musical heritage as showing, teaching, and sharing it.

Describe how your innovation helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area’s cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?

The local communities are the keeper of all their heritage's values. They are the link between past and future. The project is aiming to help those people to transmit their values. By encouraging and enhancing the sharing of this ancestral knowledge, the communities and the tourists can experience life together, learn from each other as keeping local culture safe.

Sustainability
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? What is the potential demand for your innovation?

The nomad communities get a part of the benefits, as the "Khunnu Tsuur - Mongolian Folk Music Association" gets one part, enhancing a financial sustainability. The potential demand is itself hard to reach. The real interested market could be easily widen up.

How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.

This initiative is a self invested project. The benefits of the tour goes to nomad families and association in order to preserve the "nomadic melodies".

What is your plan to expand your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.

Now, this project is locating the tours in western Mongolia (Altai Mountains). With a further development we could implement it in the Gobi Desert, and the steppes of the central Mongolia. In order to achieve this, we need to reach more people to join this cause.

What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?

This tour touches a "niche" market, which is making some marketing and development issues. Also advertising a product like this remains extremly tricky. We have to stay on the right middle of the balance: reaching enough people to keep the project alive, and not too many so it might interest some "unethic" companies to develop such tourism with destroying impact on those areas and culture.

The Story
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell your story.

Mongolia possesses a great musical heritage. Facing the globalization and the life conditions, this heritage is nowadays tending to disappear fastly. Younger generations are now starting to forget their traditions and seeking new life into urban areas. The fact is that now only a few old people keep and try to share this culture... If nothing is done, this culture could quickly be extinguished and be seen as history. We thought it was time to do something about it. Enhance it. Share it. We then had the idea to set up musical tours... A way for the nomads to get income by sharing their culture, a way to keep this culture alive, a way to involve youth and foreigners in a project which concerns us all.

Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.

Altanbagana Deleg: born in Mongolian countryside in 1974, worked in tourism industry for 10 years, with a special involvement to keep Mongolian culture alive and helping local communities through projects.

Lilian Valerio: born in France in 1984, he settled in Mongolia as loving the country and its people, always imlementing new ideas and involving in the projects helping local communities and keeping Mongolian traditions alive.

Please write an overview of your project. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on the competition homepage.

Nomadic Melodies: Preserving the Mongolian Traditional Musical Heritage by operating musical tours and implementing different actions.