Uniform state rules needed

From focusing on carbon-free tourism to adopting AI-based marketing solutions, Ministry of Tourism (MOT) will offer a different take on ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme, and will try and ensure uniform protocols across all states, says Rupinder Brar, ADG, MOT.

Nisha Verma

Amongst the several initiatives of the Ministry of Tourism is innovatively selling the same product, says Rupinder Brar. “We are developing a narrative with a carbon-free or relatively lesser carbon footprint-based tourism.Ladakh is the first state for which we are writing a vision document – staying responsible or sustainable, and incorporating all those practices in how we go about building our ecosystem when we talk of tourism,” she asserts.

In order to market the country to tourists both domestic and international, MOT, claims Brar, is thinking of utilising Augmented Reality and get into teleport. She says, “People spend a lot of time at the departure lounges, food courts, etc. We are receiving inputs to make some of our airports give an experience that is unique for both domestic and inbound travellers,” she adds.

The ADG also highlights that the government does understand they need to get into infrastructure in a big way and thus, a lot of work needs to be out in public as well as private funding. “We are again going forward with our ‘Adopt a Heritage’ initiative aggressively. Besides interventions like providing drinking water and restrooms, people are coming up with solutions that will make the travel experience around a monument far more interesting,” she shares.

MOT will also focus on Indian heritage. “Heritage needs a lot of work in terms of conservation and marketing it as a strong product for somebody who would like to spend a few hours there. A lot of work is going on with Heritage Association of India on that. Under Adopt a Heritage, a lot of interesting ideas are focused on how we could marry public-private interests in those areas and make the whole experience of tourism far more interesting in times to come,” adds Brar. And, with other countries putting in a lot of effort in marketing their products, India’s tourism ministry will also now need to focus on how it packages the products.

Brar also claims that in order to facilitate opening of borders, effort is being put into harmonising internal travel both for outbound and inbound tourists, to ensure that there is uniformity in internal travel. “Hopefully, we will soon have uniform travel norms across India, so that travellers don’t have to look up for regulations for each state,” she concludes.