‘Holistic approach must’

Gayatri Rathore, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Govt. of Rajasthan, says there is a need to keep a futuristic and holistic development approach for next 50 years to make India a tourism superpower. She hails MOT’s destination focused approach for development.

Nisha Verma

Claiming that Rajasthan’s USP is having multiple heritage destinations, Gayatri Rathore, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Government of Rajasthan, lauded MOT’s recent initiative of organizing the post-budget webinar and having a destination focused approach for tourism. She pressed for collaboration among tourism stakeholders. “Rajasthan traditionally has been a part of the Golden Triangle of Delhi-Jaipur-Agra, which has been the favourite circuit for foreign tourists coming to the country. These three destinations have developed together. However, as mentioned by the Prime Minister, we have to now focus on futuristic planning and management of these destinations. As of now, these destinations have developed because of their USPs, whether it is their architectural wonder being of historical importance, or religious importance. However, now we must keep the coming 50 years in mind and have a futuristic, holistic, development approach,” she emphasized.

Rathore informed that as part of Swadesh Darshan too, and as part of initiatives of state government, their focus is to have standard parameters, standard benchmarking, so that when tourists come, they have ease of traveling and ease of experiencing a place. “There must be ranking indicators because we cannot leave our destinations on the whims and fancies of local operators, local guides. As the PM had mentioned that we need to have professional guides in place who can explain not only about the history but also the USP and bring about life to that place, exchange programs and having a feeling of security for those tourists who are visiting from outside,” she said.

“Most of these heritage destinations are part of the UNESCO protected sites. If all the destinations coming as part of UNESCO protected sites and protected monuments, we follow a typical master plan, and do not let the surroundings and the city area developments, overshadow that destination. This is one big challenge, and we need to move together. A holistic approach needs to be developed and because now we are focusing on 50 destinations across the country, in our state two destinations have been identified. We are taking a holistic approach with all the factors, including the people. There must be a component of ownership of destination on part of the citizens of that place. Only then we can ensure that the destinations grows and brings actual, tangible, as well as intangible benefits to the place, to the state and to the country as a whole,” she added.