With Planet and People first being the core of its ethos, the company encourages travellers to explore the world around them through the lens of sustainability and ownership for the health of the planet.

RARE India – a collection of luxury heritage palaces, boutique hotels, conservation based wildlife lodges, homestays and retreats of the Indian subcontinent, unveils RARE 2.0 to address ‘how people travel’ with a pledge to urge the travel community to explore differently and redefine its narrative for luxury and experiences – one that is people sensitive and planet friendly yet where service quality and transformative travel is a given.

As part of its responsible tourism agenda under RARE 2.0, the organisation has launched its new website and logo, which symbolise RARE India’s commitment towards conscious and mindful travel where luxury is redefined as experiences beyond excesses, stays that are sustainable and regenerative. 

The new RARE Logo is a simple, stylised leaf in gold of Ginkgo biloba, familiar to many as the maidenhair tree and is a metaphor for change to be led by travel and the community. Originally from the east, Ginkgo is a living fossil and has been around since before the Dinosaurs, deliberately propagated by avid horticulturists, it is found almost everywhere from the gardens in Kashmir to Oxford Street in UK, to the lanes of Manhattan. 

Speaking about her vision for RARE 2.0 and the newly launched website, RARE India’s Founder Shoba Mohan said, “For the longest time choices for hotels, lodges and boutique stays have been based on their price points and excesses that passed off as luxury. Every popular destination has suffered the consequences of placing the needs of the traveller’s demands without a thought to the integrity of the destination and the effects of unchecked tourism on its culture and environment. The community of hotels promoted under RARE India is designed to uphold the cultural and environmental integrity of the destination by engaging visitors in experiences to celebrate its people, diversity, cultural richness, authenticity and natural beauty.”

“In destinations that are culturally fragile and are in the fringes of pristine natural habitats, travellers are urged to understand and participate in its preservation thus creating exceptional transformations,” she added.

The new website emphasises on the nine RARE Touchstones as unique value propositions of every hotel of the community that will be a benchmark for a conscious choice and will create value beyond the ubiquitous luxury and service quality. The attributes that every hotel will be measured against are their attitude towards Single Use Plastic, Local Community Engagement, Safe Garbage Disposal, Water Conservation, Low Impact Tourism, Living Heritage and its preservation, Wildlife, Nature & Habitat Conservation, Sensitive Destination Discovery and the power of Human Touch.

While all the RARE India Community hotels are audited for experience, quality, style and conscious luxury before they come on board, as part of its RARE 2.0 agenda the organisation through campaigns and workshops aims to motivate its hotel partners to assess, adopt and improve their ‘sustainability quotient’ through training and knowledge. RARE India will also explore partnerships with like-minded organisations globally to strengthen the ethos of responsible tourism and share best practices.

In its technology upgraded version, the RARE India Community aims to be a consortium that is able to change traveller mindset towards destinations and experiences in the subcontinent that are alive, authentic, set in stylish and restful spaces, earth happy, conscious of their impact on the environment and committed to the land and the community.