Grand Canyon

We visited the Grand Canyon today. Truly an amazing sight, especially when you descend between the walls of the canyon towards the Colorado River winding its way across the bottom. The sun hitting the canyon walls makes them glow a vibrant orange and it is one of those things that gets etched on your memory forever.

What amazed me even more was how the Hualapai Indian tribe, which has a 1.2 million acre reservation at the west rim of the canyon has built a sustainable business model from tourism. Unlike most other Indian tribes which run casinos on their reservations; US state laws prohibiting gambling do not apply on Indian reservations; the Hualapai have chosen not to operate casinos. They tied up with tour operators in Las Vegas some years ago to develop the west rim of the Grand Canyon as a tourist destination. An important part of this arrangement was that a right of first refusal for all jobs in the canyon would go to tribe members. The boat operators, the official photographers and the tour guides are tribe members. Our helicopter pilot was also a native American Indian, though not all pilots were.

The tribe has been doing so well over the last few years that they have started offering services to other tribes in the south western United States.

This concept is not unique to the Hualapai Indians. Magarpatta city in Pune has a similar model. The farmers who agreed to lease their land to build the IT park obtained training to become primary contractors for most services.  The electrical and plumbing contractors,  gardening contractors, security services et al are all run by the very same farmers and their families. These farmers are all prospering financially, unlike some land owners who fell into a pile of cash when they sold their land and blew it all away within a year.

Here's hoping to see this emulated more often in India.