Goa Couple Creates Jobs for 100+ Families Through Travel

A shawl vendor in a small Nepali village changed how Maria Victor thought about travel forever.

Standing in Dhampus, overlooking the Annapurna range, she photographed the vendor at his insistence. He called his wife and said something that stopped Maria in her tracks: "Even if we cannot see the world, the world can see us."

That moment in 2014 transformed her small travel hobby into something bigger. Maria had already left a successful corporate career as a chartered management accountant, working eight years across Tesco, Schlumberger, Accenture, and HP in cities from Mumbai to Dubai. The work was stable and comfortable, but a quiet question kept surfacing: was any of it truly meaningful?

In 2011, she started organizing small nature trails and treks for groups of about ten people. She noticed travelers wanted more than tourist attractions. They craved genuine connections with local communities and stories that guidebooks never tell.

After meeting the Nepali vendor, Maria completely reworked her company's model. She partnered with her husband Murali Shankaran to rebuild Make It Happen around a simple idea: travel should benefit both visitors and hosts equally.

They began designing experiences that put local families at the center. Instead of standard hotels, travelers stayed in homestays. Instead of generic tours, they learned crafts, shared meals, and heard stories directly from community members across Ladakh, Spiti, Nagaland, and Gujarat.

The impact reached people like Pawan Gorantla, who found himself stuck during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through Make It Happen's model, he discovered an entirely new direction for his career, moving beyond scattered event work and bartending gigs.

The Ripple Effect

Today, Make It Happen offers over 50 immersive travel experiences across India. Each journey creates income opportunities for local guides, homestay hosts, artisans, and food vendors who might otherwise remain invisible to mainstream tourism.

More than 100 families now earn steady livelihoods through the company's community-centered approach. The model proves that tourism doesn't have to extract value from local areas. When designed thoughtfully, it can become a genuine exchange where everyone gains something meaningful.

Maria reflects on leaving corporate life with no regrets. "If you want to build something meaningful, you have to give it your whole self," she says. What started as ten-person treks has grown into a network supporting hundreds while giving travelers the depth and connection they're seeking.

One vendor's hope that the world might see his village sparked a company that now helps entire communities be seen, valued, and supported.