Member Discussion on Rural Tourism Policy Recommendations
And a very good afternoon to all. Thank you so much for investing your time with Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Viral Tourism Council member discussion on rural tourism policy recommendations on this legendary day of fifteenth August the seventh, the seventy-fifth anniversary of India's Independence. I would like to take this opportunity to also thank our national president, mister Ahem who has been tirelessly working towards establishing a strong council and motivating all the members to deliver the best. My name is the Shula member of Vicki's National Council and I'm excited to be moderating the panel discussion today. India is geographically diverse combined with which the cultural richness of the country forms a large part of the rural tourism product for India, Rural tourism has gained importance in India in the past few years and especially so in the pandemic times travelers have been seeking such areas to visit which has a population that showcases the rural life, art, culture, and heritage of those rural locations. in June,
2021 as an initiative towards a man the Ministry of Tourism Government of India invited recommendations on its draft, national strategy and road map for development of rural tourism in India. Today, we have an amazing panel where we will be discussing the measures proposed in its recommendations letter to the ministry of Tourism Government of India. Before we begin with the proceedings today, I would like to give you an idea of what to expect in the next hour or so. I will take a few moments to introduce each panelist briefly as I mentioned before then, of the panel will be requested to explain their respective points of recommendation and then, we will open up the floor to give an opportunity to ask specific questions on the recommendations from the panelists and the audience a few points on housekeeping of the sessions are important for the seamless progress of the discussion. So, first members may speak in either English or Hindi Secondly, each speaker will be allowed maximum of three to 4 minutes to explain their points. Thirdly, only one
panelist is requested to speak at a time. Please, no panels will be allowed to interrupt while the other panelist is speaking. We request you to keep your mics on mute for an uninterrupted session. Next Today's sessions recording will be accessible to the same link you are using now, last, we encourage you to share today's session recording with your social networks which is very important to uh you know, get us uh the limelight that we want that the rural rural tourism wants. So, let's begin
with a brief introduction of our esteemed panel This Amada, she's a a principal of Swastikas and is the national Council member of Vicky Captain Donnie. She's the director of the Opulence Travels and a National Council member, Doctor Kashi Mahesh. She is the assistant professor at Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management and she's the MP state president of the Wiki Rural Tourism Council Doctor Pasa. She's the founder of Team Travels Tas India LLP and she's the J and K State president Doctor Shea She's a professor of tourism at a Muslim University and is the National Council member miss Sara. She's a writer, storyteller, font, and creator and is the National Council member, miss Loretta Rosalia Nada. She's the
operations and sales and marketing director, travel assistance, and the UP state president for Rural Tourism Council Miss Ribeiro. She's an independent writer and a consultant and she's state president. Missy. Missy is the assistant professor of school of management. Si Ou deemed to be university. She's the state
president for the Rural Tourism Council Miss Anna, She's the she's the development consultant and writer and she's a national council member. Miss Rashi. She's an assistant professor at UITH and M University and also founder of founder and MD of Gio's Getaways. She's the Punjab
State president for Wiki Rural Tourism Council. This rash, she's a freelance researcher, distinct faculty at JKLU and she's this Rajasthan state president Miss Rubs. Uh she's a managing partner at Hotel Jose Nada and she's the president Sanjiv. She's the managing director. TLTE Services Private
limited and she's the president for Wiki Tourism Council. Next is miss Donna. She's an associate professor, school of hospitality, and culinary arts. The Neo University and she's a national council member She's the principal of AM and she's a national council member This should be, she's a director of kindness drills and Os Gramma Pradesh and she's also the of the state president with so much She's the CEO of a craft. international yoga and meditation teacher and evaluator. She's also a classical dancer and she's the state vice president for West Bengal Miss Somali Panda. She's
a senior government officer uh for West Bengal Information and Cultural Affairs Department and she's a national council member for Wiki to the council and miss Tina. She's the deputy director of tourism government of Naan Naan state president. Welcome to one and all Now, I would like to begin with miss Minnie Ribeiro to speak on the measures as proposed by her as part of the recommendations.
Welcome, ma'am. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody and namaste. I'm extremely happy to be speaking today on an occasion like this and on the topic which is of course very close to my heart and all of our esteemed panel members from the the Rural Tourism Council as I go in terms of the tourism council but of course our recommendations are primarily for the entire country. For me, the three pillars of to primarily are. It is got to be fair. It's got to
be inclusive and it's got to be sustainable. So, no matter what the product offerings that we have for tourism, these three aspects are absolutely important Looking at the first recommendation that I very strongly read about is I think that while we are developing very many other offerings and activities in different states including go, I think gastronomy, tourism or culinary tourism is something that has tremendous potential Uh the reason This is because all of us know that India being such a diverse country. I mean, every hundred kilometers or perhaps even less. We have a lot of uh
opportunities for exploring different kind of local food and there is no better way to connect to people than food. you know, connected somebody to the destination through food is perhaps the easiest way to do so and of course, when tourists come to a place and while all of us like our foods, you know, when they go from that particular of India. It's always nice to experience the local food. This becomes even more interesting and important and relevant perhaps is because it's important to actually help the rural community. the local community and integrate those experiences into your travel experience. So, in short,
actually food to reserve one culinary tourism or astronomy tourism as they want to call it. It's actually something that really can actually become a very, very important ally for social and economic development. certain key things that need to be kept in mind for this. It should be sustainable Seasonality should be taken into account and of course, it should respect the local community. It's got to be
responsible. You need to integrate the local community. you need to get into, you know, the for these kind of people who are there locally and who are developing these local products. So, encourage them. It could be through various ways you could be eating in an open home. You could be, you
know, traveling to a local farm to see how food is being produced because the people are really conscious about sustainability. They want to know where the food is coming from. So, it becomes relevant and important to involve tourists in this process. You can take them to farms. You can take them to spice markets. You can take them to local markets and actually showcase the local food and that is where sustainability comes in. Also,
it's very important to see how this food is grown, how this food is procured, how is is it sort of, you know, uh distributed locally and That is absolutely no negligible carbon footprint. So, it's very important that these aspects come in and the more we integrate the local community into this experience and get our tourists to come and experiences rather than the usual kind of food that we want to eat in a comfort food. Okay, you know, if all else fails, we have our fast food or we have our, you know, typical kind of uh uh diverse Indian cuisines that are available. It's always nice to experience local foods to help the local community. They're going to the local community, you're going to actually empower them, create a means of livelihood for them and of course, you must respect for the local community. So,
this can be, as I said through home spaces, through food experiences, it could be, it could be festivals, it could be local feast happening in villages. You could go to the local village markets and experience lesser known. for example, in terms of seasonality, I'd like to tell you many people outside of Goa perhaps don't know that there are a lot of leafy vegetables that grow and go up during the ones even people living and go up and don't know that. So, sometimes it's nice to actually go to the and actually experience these vegetables. eat what is being produced locally, eat what is seasonal because obviously, if it's seasonal, we're going to eat it for a reason. It's healthy coming to my second recommendation no matter what the product offerings, the tourism can offer to are all great. They are wonderful and
we can really come up with innovative ideas but all is really going to sort of fall flat if we don't have proper infrastructure in place. So, this is something I feel very strongly about. Of course, the government is aware of this and there are very many bodies locally and uh central level who are working towards it but it's very important to develop robust infrastructure if we are talking about building or sustaining rural tourism or hint and tourism, we need to have proper roads in place You need to have proper signage in place. The roads need to be well-lit. They need to be in a good so that a traveler doesn't really break their back while driving to it. You know, it
needs to be good quality roads. Well, the bright safe with proper signage Only then can we really talk about developing? Hi or or if people don't have access to these places no matter how interesting the offerings are or how bright these experiences are, they're obviously not going to get anywhere because people may try once and they're going to come back and they're going to have a bad experience and they're possibly going to work It's going to spread that this is not a place that you really need to go because there is no connectivity. There is no power. You know, I don't I'm sort of cut off from the internet. So, these things
today are non negotiable and are important pillars rural tourism needs to start. Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing from you. Absolutely. Well, said ma'am. Infrastructure and uh things like culinary tourism. I think they're the need of the art at the moment, You know, especially in these times of the pandemic uh where we, you know, where the tables are seeking the local experiences more. Absolutely. Thank you so much, ma'am. Next, I would like
to invite, invite Missy uh to put forth her thoughts about the recommendations that she's put forward. Thank you. Uh is it audible no matter Uh can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. Okay. Uh thanks a lot. Uh a very good afternoon
to one and all. Uh it's really a great pleasure listening to Billy Madam coming up with the various recommendations to promote the rural tourism of a popular state Uh go uh as we all know that each and every state of our country has it's unique essence beauty, specialty, and strengths and so on. So, we're representing a rural tourism council. Uh it
gives me an opportunity to share the recommendations on the platform of Vicki Rural Tourism Council uh In a short video, I wanted to say that is an Eastern Indian state on the Bay of Bengal. It's a blend of nature art, religion, spiritualist, and is known for its temples and monuments that arouse interest from different parts of the world in one sentence or is the gateway to the luxurious experience of nature Now coming to the point rural tourism of Odessa and taking into account that is it is a which has a maximum eco tourism among other all other states in the country. A lot of initiates have been taken by the state government to promote it on the national and international level. Now, when
we talk about ecotourism or community managed tourism in Odessa nationally, it aims to support the wildlife conservation by providing alternative livelihood uh to the communities in that state. So, it is all about uniting conservation, uh your communities, and sustainability. So, it is highly recommended that the state should create a movement uh especially at the grassroots level of rural or that would help to generate employment and develop a sense of pride for the local community especially for the women because when you lift up women, you lift up the humidity now just siting here an example, we have the chili is the largest lake in the Northern Hemisphere and it is the gold mine of tourism in So, this type of uh places you know that it's special attention from the state as well as the central government to develop the ecotourism and infrastructure of that particular area. Similarly, there are other eco tourist force in the country like Kanika which is known for the National park then they have which is a famous for viral and so on. So, that was my first recommendation. We should need
to develop the eco spots in our state and secondly, coming like I have one more recommendations like uh with a vision to develop or as one of the country's most favored. Uh you can see all season destination offering unique experiences to the across the spectrum and a mission to multiply the livelihood and income by encouraging. initiatives like Homestead and the state has recommended in it's drafted tourism policy. 2020 with a lot of objectives and strategies, you know, that usually right from, you know, clean and pollution, free tourism, safety, and security of the tourists building, branding, marketing to digital initiative. So, why not come up
with a model village in the capital city of similar to that of so it could be an idle place for showcasing and experiencing or a traditional art craft, food, handcrafts, hand los the hospitality, and at the same time, it can provide community, especially the women. Now, the pro model village can draw tourists to showcase the rural beauty of or and I believe that with the uh involvement especially the rural tourism sector of uh Ora. I mean that rural tourism sector of Vicki will contribute sustainable uh rural tourism and women of rural or can be brought to the forefront and can strive to build a network of women leaders who can contribute towards the development of rural tourism in Ora. that puts specially address the social and humanitarian issues. We
also know that no house, no, society, no state, no country has ever moved forward without empowering its women. So, uh before concluding, I just wanted to say that it reminds me of a noble laureate in a speech in sushi so much in the year. 1900 1904, he had a and of India to uplift the rural people as they are the backbone of the nation. So, on this uh seventy-fifth Independence Day of India, uh why not be the members of the Rural Tourism Council Take a step forward to uplift the rural women of our state, our country. So, madam, that was all from my side and I believe I have kept it within this time frame. Okay, thank
you. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much fam. Thank you so much for such an important I must say and you spoke about, you know, creating livelihoods for locals which is uh which is a very very strong and important point for us. Uh you know, in tourism
uh you spoke about developing eco tourism around which is you know, one of the biggest lakes in the whole of Asia and uh you also spoke about coming up with the village. Uh you know, these are these are um I would say you know very very wider points uh to develop brutal tools in India and Uh the last point that you spoke about is absolutely important which is empowerment of women and that's why I think like ours are here. So, thank you so much, ma'am. Thank you so much for your inputs. Thank you. Next, I would like to call upon miss Soma Datta uh to kindly put up your points, ma'am. Namaste, everyone. I'm honored to be
discussing in this forum today on the occasion of the seventy-fifth amrit of um country and uh we and Vicky, we are empowering us not only empowering ourselves but the uh uh women of our country and uh I think uh wellness is one of the most important things uh which we should uh take care of. uh so wellness of the women who are Uh and doing the work and also wellness of everyone who visits the place where we are going to develop as the tourism spots. So, uh training, training, the women uh in different fields uh and taking care of their well being is one of the very important things which uh we should uh take care of um and uh we can also have where we can uh um develop for wellness sector and uh take care of that which is uh at uh right now in the situation of pandemic. we can see that uh without wellness, there is no life. So, wellness is a very important factor and people have realized and uh they have started taking baby steps towards uh having uh uh good life. Uh well, uh healthy,
healthy life. So, that is a very important step which we should take um uh from our side, we should have that wholesome because wellness means uh uh well being of the body, mind, and spirit. So, uh it should be a total package uh which we can deliver uh through our council and I would recommend that uh we get the opportunity to spread through our model villages. These
things which will help develop the village, not only um in the rural tourism sector but they will empower the women of the village and the youth to take steps and empower themselves. also. So, I would uh thank Vicki uh for taking this step on this uh uh grand day of the seventy-fifth um Independence Day and I hope we can make a difference in the lives of all women all around in our country. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. of you spoke about wellness tourism, uh the importance of tourism, uh you know, which can be part of the rural tourism development and uh I think training of women and youth is coming out. You
know, it's emerging as one of the main points. someone's smallest speakers today and uh it seems to be a very vital point of which needs to are taken into consideration. If you would like to develop rural tourism in India. So, thank you
so much ma'am for your inputs on developing. well, as part of the tourism. Thank you. I would like to call upon miss Shana next uh to kindly speak about the points that you are as recommendations kindly, I request you to unmute yourself, man. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh it's my pleasure
and honor to be a part of and being able to speak to all of you and put in my recommendations over here. Uh since the last one and a half years, we have really been uh you know, show what actually has happened, how India has been hit the world has been yet. Yes. But India has been hit in a very strong way especially the people who have been traveling from their villages to the city for their living the entire uh country has seen what had happened to the people who were considered as migrate labors and they have traveled from their villages to to work and when they came back, it was a terrible, terrible thing to happen and that gave me a thought that we need to create employment at the villages where the people they are empowered, they are employed, and they do not leave their home for uh the living and be faced with this kind of horrible situations. It was really very shameful for uh us see something like this happen and that is where I feel that the rural India needs to be empowered and employment generated and they need to be looked after and what best way to do through rural tourism I being a hospitality background uh person with the hospitality training and education. I felt
that tourism is the only thing that could immediately help everyone and most of all, we seen that international travel has stopped and because of that, people want to travel. There are people who would love to travel and there are so many beautiful places in India. Hardly, we all know we all travel abroad but we don't see what we have within our country. Uh there's a very uh
uh poor environment where two lines are there that they can So, we have not seen what is around us. We go different places to see. So, what I recommend is a home stays which could be developed in the villages and where the homes will belong to the villages, not the outsiders and the villagers will be in a trained to take care of the guests with bit of training on hygiene. Little bit of training on housekeeping. Little bit of training on how to serve the food but their own food, local food, they will cook and they will uh give us where support is required from the government is to see that they have running water and electricity There are places where they do not have electricity now and running water is not available.
So, if those kind of support is created, we can do wonders. We have, I personally have been visiting villages in Peru where people are extremely poor, extremely poor but they have beautiful houses, houses which are beautifully painted which they do it on their own every year. They come up with beautiful all around the house. They have their own dance and uh you know, tribal dance that they have and they also have different art and culture around there in. we also have the show dance where they make the masks of and they also do little bit of agriculture. So,
what we could do is we could also help them to promote the um brown rice which it's uh and brown rice can be promoted to now, people are becoming conscious about their health and understand the value of eating, you know, unprocessed food. So, brown rice is one something very important which they could they can grow and we can take it from them and promote it. to get people to come and stay in the home stays and learn their art and crafts and enjoy the day and take some souvenir along with it to make it a complete package. when
they sleep and uh along with that where people could also learn their craft if they want to learn their craft work that making of the chores or even not only here also in North uh the similar kind of work is that there are few craft work so we could arrange for training where we could arrange this training happen and develop people with this kind of craft work which could be promoted all over India and abroad Number two, we could also have exchange program where people from other countries would come to stay here and learn the art and craft and take it to their country That would also help the local craftsman and also the home stays where they could come and stay and you know, uh could be a symbiotic kind of arrangement and uh that is all I would like to say and uh I think this would really help if we can make a joint effort We make uh the villages sustainable and not have any outside influence on them, generate them, help them to them Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Um I really like the point where you said that you know, India has been affected majorly during this pandemic where uh you know, the migrant population uh you know really suffered and uh you know working with them at the grassroots level uh as you have Are you not teaching them or training them on the local crafts? Um so, I think this is a very valid point uh especially in today's times, you know, of the pandemic. Um
I'm stressing on the pandemic because I think we are living in that age and uh you know, for the past year and a half, it's been um it has really made us look inside us as to what can we do differently now, you know, so uh definitely thank you so much ma'am for your inputs and I would like to call upon doctors to kindly put up your recommendations to us Now, Hi, uh good afternoon everyone and a very happy Independence Day to all of you. uh like with uh my recommendations. Uh I'll start with you. First one uh like uh has already mentioned all the homes so far. So it's almost similar because we like uh we also have a home stay here and uh it's like what problems uh we have faced by registering it while uh like uh It's important to um start this culture of promoting homes and we are the first one to take this initiative here in uh uh Sansa. This is a real place.
It's a kind of space. So, uh my point here is to like is the policies for homes is to get registered because when we talk about the homestead, they have to get registered. Maybe it's the one who HomeStore's three six because less than six is a homestead then more than six rooms we have then it's something that gets home or a hotel. So uh the hostess in rural areas, rural people, they are not aware about to be like all the all the NOC. we have to is that process. So, uh
basically talking uh about all the problems I have faced even even I am aware of all those things but still those all um if I'll say uh all the formalities required uh if I particularly I talk about the GM here we have a list of checklist of eleven or 1212 documents like to get the documents you mean that you have uh plenty of to go to all the different offices, departments to get those like to get those answers or I'll say it bluntly, you can drive the people because it's not easy to get the AC on here. So, uh all the departments from all the uh like electricity and the water supply, it's a little thing but from all the higher authorities even So it's important to make this process easy because when I'm talking about a rural place, that person has this one room to rent or So, it should be uh some local unions from local association. Those with whom they can register, they can get registered because it is important to promote homestead. Asylum has already said that it will be like people will be getting them and employment and they're all we can stop the migration to our cities because all the people they are going going to be cities for their livelihood. So, while doing
this, uh the culture we can like make side by side income at least uh the pandemic. we all have seen. it's quite tough for all of us to survive for survival. Those who are into like jobs, they have to get back to their faces. So, it's
it's important we can make the process easy. for all the uh state. Uh I suppose because the home, we can talk homestead are mostly in the rural areas and we must have liked the uh promotional parts that uh some local unions and local people, those who are aware in this process, they can uh like them. about the documentation but first of all, that process should be like bit easy, easy because if they are living there, their their water bill, electricity bills, they can do, I guess, try to make a long list of 1213 Nos. It will be quite different. It will be a discouraging for them to convert their home into a homestead. So, our first one is
this uh I'll recommend to all the tourism departments of all these states to make the homestead policy which because we have a homestead policy at the minister of tourism Uh even they have almost like uh many things to like to be done. So, it should be easy and the second recommendation is about the plastic waste. We all like plastic waste is what the problem of one station or one tourism. It's the problem
everywhere whether it's mountains or beaches. So, first of all, individually, we have to be responsible while traveling. Uh if I take a practical example here while the pandemic, we all we all were locked down for two to 3 months that time like we were like all and all we have seen the light and we're upside down but when as soon as it's was here. I'll uh here on it was officially open in January and for the first few weeks only, being a resident of uh I have seen just the first two weekends, we have a huge huge rush and the people they are not at all responsible towards the environment. Uh they are cooking on the roadside. They
are throwing all the plastic will like it wasn't even when I went to so many people to tell them kindly pack your and take it with yourself but that's, you know, it's all in vain. So, uh I recommend to make uh uh to suggest to go to make the plastic waste disposal plastic waste management plan or particular dumping sites on all the sensitive areas because mountains or which is the all are fragile. So, because we are promoting one area like even if we talk about and region, we have as people when it's done and all the did everything and it can be done on a uh like government level, not on an individual level. I
can do. I can like train the people. I can talk to them but I cannot put a plant and you know, it's solid plan so it should be at all the stations. all the tourist spot that I would say that's for me. Thank you.
Thank you, Doctor Sophia. Uh I think your points are so well um and uh regarding the home stays as well as the plastic waste problem. The disposal problem and uh what I could see from these things are that uh the intervention of the government is very important because uh making the process easier for the home stays to get registered as well as uh you know setting up the waste disposal sites and implementing the program successfully especially on the mountains and the beaches as you mentioned Uh I think it's imperative for the government to step in here. Uh
so, thank you so much for your suggestions and um they are really really essential elsewhere. Thank you ma'am. I would like to call upon uh MBA who kindly speak about your recommendations, ma'am. Yeah, thank you Diana. um I'm very happy to be part of the panel of the Wiki Rural Tourism Council. Happy Independence Day
to you all and uh you know, to everybody else watching. Uh so already, I think some very key recommendations have been raised by my fellow council members but so I would like to sort of uh reiterate them and maybe add to it. So, um I I'm a development consultant and I basically have worked uh you know with NGOs and the communities they work with across India and uh my focus is really been on improving and enhancing the lives of you know, rural women and I realized that um you know, there's such a wealth of information and uh the places that some of them live in are so beautiful. So, you know, sustainable tourism is a very uh you know, realistic intervention which and sustainable intervention. It just has to be done in the right manner. um and uh you
know, it's interesting to listen to because she was talking about chili and chili happens to be a favorite of mine because I work with which was working with the Fisher Fork there and um I realized that you know, it just requires a little bit of effort on our part to really um get them Um you know, empowered and get them involved in this whole process because we've been trying to do other means of livelihood with them and we've also been looking at tourism. So I think while it's also of course a very important to involve the men and the leaders. I think it's women who are very essential to this process. So, involvement and
empowerment of women is is important and you have to really look at women, community members, and leaders as being in this process and becoming the key stakeholders. So, uh and this also of course provides supplementary income opportunities for them, right? This will empower women and their and in turn, it also enhances their self esteem, encourages self reliance, autonomy, and more importantly, it, you know, also brings a decision making role into their hands. and I think uh women make decisions. Uh you know, often not just for themselves but for their families and for the community. So, I really think it's very very important to involve women in this process. I mean, in any any um
economic intervention, I think it's important to involve women Um the other aspect that I'd like to talk about is also the fact that uh you know I think the uh some of the other um I mean council members mentioned this we talked about uh the intervention very local and authentic and I think that's a real must because whatever um you know, activity we do has to be authentic to the community's place on earth and each place has its own unique history. It's culture and resource, right? So, it must be led locally by women and the community but it must also be accepted and practiced by the community as a whole because only if they take ownership for this process and if it's something that they are comfortable doing, Can we actually make it sustainable? So, we really need to take into consideration local knowledge. uh you know, the local experiences and it should also be of course appropriate and sensitive to the uh you know, the local environment over there in the cultural environment over there um and and my third point was really again this was talked about by so that and uh and also I think Nam they talked about building the capacity of communities. and uh I'm an avid reader and you know, I practice in La uh and also in the south and you know, there's a lot of uh and and really uh wrecking is uh you know, it's done only because we have so many local youth involved in the processes and because of all their efforts, they are the backbone of this one activity, right? So I think a little bit of effort has to be put into providing them a little more support in terms of building the capacity but also, you know, in terms of helping them communicate and market their services better. Um then we can truly make it local and not have them just work for uh you know, uh an urban company with uh sort of uses them to provide these kind of services So, uh these are my three key recommendations and um yeah I'm I'm very very happy that I was given the opportunity to share this.
Thank you very much. Thank you miss Priya. Uh thank you so much. Uh I think the women in involvement and empowerment as I said before, you know, it's it's coming out to be a key point uh at the stage for the you know as a process uh in development of rural tourism and uh particularly when you said that they're being the important stakeholders and they are the important decision because they need to be the important decision makers in development of a rural area. I
think that's a key valid point as well here and you also spoke about the authenticity of the local area and community that needs to be taken into constipation while developing a rural area. I think that's also very, very important and uh you know, valid point without which I don't think the rural area can thrive or even can be developed as well. So, thank you so much ma'am for your valid points. Thank you so much. I would like to call upon uh miss Frost next to kindly put up your points, ma'am to discuss the points. Thank you so much. It's such an
honor to be here with such an esteemed um uh number of panelists here and it was so good to hear miss Priya A and speak about uh trekking especially uh about training the youth and marketing skills to create their own company rather than working for a big company. So, you're resonating with the rest of the panelists here. My first point is about training uh and building uh capabilities among the locals uh in this II. Think a lot of
involvement of the locals is necessary so that they can nominate uh uh at least one youth or a woman and train them who can further train other people uh training in um you know uh in sanitation, um maintaining hygiene, creating rooms for tourists and uh you you know, highlighting their culinary uh the the food that they grow especially in a place like that is rare food. Um uh like you know, uh buckwheat and then you have barley and you have various uh authentic uh like you know, local food which can be really marketed well. Uh also all these um in these past few years uh tourism has gone a more rural and people are exploring more. So, my point is that uh training at the local level should be organized by involving the pan uh members and uh you know, so that people can really benefit from rural tourism especially the locals rather than big companies who exploiting the locals. Um
sorry, has a higher altitude, the breathing problem is there. So therefore, I'm like a bit okay. Now, the second point that I would really like to and this again resonates with Doctor Pasa is about pollution uh especially in in, you know, clean and pristine environments like ours with tourists come and then the two bottles, plastic waste. So, my
recommendation is to create water. ATMs in all these rural areas so that plastic water bottles can all together be avoided. So, government should place uh and should keep some budget for water. ATMs across
the villages and towns. uh you know where tourists go so that Taurus also fresh and clean waters available. Drinking water, hot and cold is available and also pollution is controlled, you know, especially with plastic bottles flowing in rivers, All that can be avoided by creating a water atoms. That's my second point. My third point is about um uh you know, uh marketing renewable energy especially subsidizing renewable energy sources like solar energy uh and uh especially in locally, especially in rural places, in villages. uh some of the
villages as you go for trekking especially in the dark. They don't have uh uh uh uh electricity. So, it's important that you know, rural uh sorry renewable energy uh is subsidized and given to those places so then uh you know, they can harness of the water heaters, heating water through that uh renewable energy source and also uh like you know, for electricity purposes. So, that's my uh second point.
Sorry, the fourth point is getting internet connectivity. Uh we don't have uh like you know, uh it's so important to have internet connectivity in these areas which are so far flung uh and it is uh very difficult to get the internet connectivity there. So, my recommendation is to provide some incentives to data providers, uh internet service providers so that they can be uh you know incentivized uh like exempting taxes. so that they can provide internet services to these villages. So, yeah, these are the four points uh training the youth then water ATMs renewable energy subsidizing and also um uh you know, uh exempting taxes for internet connectivity for a better connection to rural areas. Thank you. Thank you
miss Rubina. Uh I think you've summarize all the points for us so beautifully and uh uh you know of the same thing resonates here that we need to, you know, take care of the pollution in the mountain areas uh and the beaches specifically uh also the environment of the local as you mentioned uh is a is an important area of which uh needs to be explored. you know, where the youths can be trained as part of the local initiative and they can train others uh in turn uh and you spoke about the water ATMs and um the marketing and subsidizing of the local energy of example The solar energy that is welcome Um so, I think again, these are very very important points. Uh you know, that can go long in establishing Google tourism in India as one of the best. So, thank you so much. Thank you so
much, ma'am. I would like to call upon uh Shane to kindly uh elaborate on your points ma'am. Hey, good afternoon. I'm thank
you for uh you know, taking the discussion forward Um we've had some excellent, you know, key points from um many members Um I will try to sum up uh you know, whatever you've discussed so far in my recommendations which you know, I put forward Um the first one being I think most of us we have seen that uh you know uh which was shared with all of us on development of rural tourism in India. You know, the tagline was uh an initiative towards which is very important and I think I would like to, you know, talk about that. Um many of us have already talked about how you know, we can empower women and how you know, uh uh we could actually help uh in uh improving people's livelihood in the rural to uh you know areas uh I would just sum up in two words which I would call community involvement you know, community uh shared um you know, projects uh which means that whatever infrastructure developments that we do, whatever promotions we do, whatever policies that we, you know, make, we will have to ensure that the villages of that particular area are involved in it from the beginning to the end. Uh we could look at you know, uh community based model which is uh you know doing very successfully in Kerala and also where uh has created the, you know, necessary infrastructure and they've given it off to the villages to run those particular, you know, uh whether be people who, you know, camps or nature camps or wildlife camps or it could be the craft village. So, from the
beginning to the end, uh you know, it is the villages who are involved in it. Um they ensure that you know, they are kept clean so we could uh you know um see that there is an involvement in country wise. Uh it's very pertinent that we involve the people who are there so that uh uh you know, they can take it forward and of course at the end of the day, uh empowerment and uh you know like we could set of the livelihoods definitely will result to it. Uh my second recommendation uh you know is about um skill development. I think uh you know many of the members have already spoken about it but then my to the government would be to uh you know It's development centers. I think the policy already mentions that, you know, our government is looking at having six or five or six in one class. So,
we could actually have a skill development center over there which would actually take care of not just behavioral skills, life skills but they put a uh you know, look at what would be the best uh you know, crop in that particular how we can produce it in a much better way. Uh how would we use this particular produce you know to take it Do you know a plate of the tourists coming in? What would be different? Um uh you know, uh recipes that would come up uh for example, in orders we have, you know, very good growth of millet. So, you know, they could be continuous training programs as to how we can uh use mills in the you know uh uh uh beans that is being offered to the tourists. Uh it could um deal with uh you know training in the clubs how we can improve on the crafts we could deal with digital You know, there's a very good uh you know, which the villagers are doing and they're unable to promote it so we could deal with um how they can use social media, how they can do digital marketing, how they can, you know, make uh world know about what they are actually offering to the tourists. Uh so, this particular uh you know center is going to just take care of the entire um uh as a whole and it will be a continuous um effort by the government in order to uplift them and make it a you know, even for people can come. this could probably
be, you know, uh done with um a joint collaboration with certain government institutions which are within that particular, you know, vicinity. It could be the institute of management or it could be the, you know, for institute for travel and trade uh uh management with uh uh ministry of Tourism. Government of India has So uh so that there is a continuity in training because at the end of the day, tourism is all about you know how best you can, you know, offer hospitality and services and it is a human touch which makes the uh you know, difference and the experience that is going to carry is all about the people there. So, we will have to actually give them practical and also and for that, if there is an infrastructure which is available where you know, the trainers could go on a frequent basis and teach them how to improve on and uh you know, entire um product which they are giving and of course, that would definitely result in a better experience. So, basically, these are my two recommendations and I thank you that now once again, uh thank you all. It was a pleasure listening to you. I'll
requested to take it forward from here. Thank you, miss. Thank you so much for uh your recommendations. So, you spoke about the community involvement which is very important and uh especially uh you know the examples which were taken one of the Kerala and more and uh I think the entire country needs to, you know, take a tip from them in order to develop their own states as well in terms of community involvement, Uh also you spoke about the skill development centers uh you know, developing skill development centers in the clusters uh you know, which are being identified and uh which will take care of the whole rural tourism product. uh you know as a whole it consider it as a whole you know, as a package and deliver it to the tour So, uh those are again, very very important aspects of you know, which could take Buddhism in our country forward. So, thank you, ma'am. Thank you so much. Um I would like to request uh next Rashida to kindly convey your recommendations. Now, a happy
New Year to each and everyone of you and proud to be proud of being a part of the tourism and I'm really happy to listen on the so many good other members and I really appreciate uh ma'am she's mentioned about uh a brown rice so in the pajamas so in we have one person. she is doing the black rice and she's providing to the bakery back to sources and these bakeries are creating their own products and sailing and it about that and secondly for you, said about the training part So and like she mentioned about the Bali. So, I'm connecting to the my point and my first recommendation as we know, Punjabi is she says that begins from here and it's history, culture, tradition, and everything is there but most importantly and the tourism park, we are not able to sustain our traveler or tourists more than a night. The people are just coming for the 2 days and staying over the night. and because the major attraction next to the Punjab.
So, people are moving to the so they're coming and staying in Punjab for a night spending 2 days and they are moving to uh because um let's say it will have the admin side Golden Temple. So, of course the government Punjab they are doing a lot of things for the agriculture tourism and they are inviting all the ag uh owners if they have so they can create their own farm. So, only these things are not helping to promote the ruler to them because if you see the Punjab, it has that every page is there in every city in the main door. On the back side, you will find there's a faint because the city is the urban area is really developing on the base of some village. So now, my
recommendation is there. The first recommendation I give the uh creative cluster. Since we are having the day, we have a lot of like, we don't know the is very popular Duties are there wood work is there and there's like community is there. They used to make beautiful uh this in a very beautiful carving on it but they are losing their things.
There are a lot of toys out there in the Punjabi area which is now not can be cannot be seen anywhere. So, detective. what we wanted in the part of like cultural tourism, cultural tourism. people are coming just watching them and just looking at them and they're leaving.
So, prophecy that like he's also working a lot of research in the Bali and they have to create tourism with the Rams are coming and they are participating on this works. They are attending the workshop. They are doing their work and they have so many business school. These schools, they are in their conference.
These workshops, when these business people, they are coming and they're understanding the art, how it has been made, all these things are required. What are the problem in there? They are ready to help them in some other way. So, I mean, a recommendation to like uh like uh places like uh uh that uh which is already doing a great job and we have Punjab and other places like UP so we can have a creative culture uh so anyways, You're just going to visit him. Along with that,
he's learning and they must be involved in the community and coming out a very different person once he comes and it's because it's a cultural experience are intangible. It may be something for one person. It may be changes to the other person. So, from the government, what we want is they should contact all the tourist operators who are operators and travel agencies at the government agencies to come on one platform and on the creating these uh creative culture. and promote these uh these places like we have to the village on the day. we've got we've lived with our villages. They were nothing has
been done. It was whatever it was there. whatever the infrastructure infrastructure, the way people are living, we are just going and looking at what kind of charities there, how it has been like, what are the various patterns are coming and there was a one uh that exhibitions were there, is it permanent so you will know What kind of is being used? What is the name of that? All the name was there and it's complete showroom is there and we were served by the local, their authentic normal food and in the nurses, they have performed two or three dances over there and and there was many of the Impact Club from the Indian School of these people were also with us and they were identifying what the problem has been faced by the local people and this This trip was not very expensive since the rural area. If the person is doing its cost is very high and was the charge for the same thing. It's a price to people
are not coming to do them. So, they are not getting any of the economic benefit. So, to sustain for the economic benefit, we should come out of 1 day trip and uh one excursion type of thing. a workshop was involving the university students or studying about the local culture and all then only these packages can be all they can have the hybrid model if you come and enjoy for the day. not to stay in their role. is
there in the Punjab. They are doing the same thing. So, these are two things and secondly, for the hospital, entertaining with it other educational especially hospitality institution to come out with the ruler hospital for the child because we are talking about the five star hotels when we talk about teaching the students about the hospitality, we only talk about the five star hospitality in the rural area, the hospital has to be different. So, there's a way of
how they do the booking, how they're going to maintain the record, how they should serve is totally different than the five star hotel. So, my these two recommendations are there. It has to be need to be creating a little uh cultural cluster and secondly, the hospitality should be from the aspect of rural roots. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you so much and uh so you've already summarize the points uh which you've put up that is uh you know having creative culture clusters and um having the extortion workshops or to create that exposure which is required uh in uh you know as as to promote tourism. Uh also you spoke about the uh as a second recommendation you spoke about the rural tourism related courses uh that need to be there in particular to uh to train people on guru tourism specifically. So, thank you so much ma'am for your valuable suggestions and um I would like to call upon miss Amada next to uh kindly put forth your suggestions to us man. Thank you. I request you to kindly unmute yourself, ma'am. Hello. a very happy Independence Day to you all. I actually um when it
comes to rural, I have been teaching in the hospital for a very long time but when it comes to rural tourism, it's a very complicated different game. I've got like I also am doing some work with a one in Norris for that purpose. I visit their religious very very often Once in a month, I go to those areas and I've seen them very closely. I've got few recommendations. I don't know. know. Recommendations are like
observations and what I feel about it. First, I'll say, I'll put the training. I don't know many of them have told about this already. We have been
training the students about different establishments like five some students also Both of cultural areas like go up there. their mala or something or Hawaii or but here we are talking about something very different. We are talking about that. Uh we will betray this is
the students can betray You can accumulate them and can train them but we have to train the people who as the guests who will be availing the results when somebody is coming to coming on a holiday. He might be expecting a bliss white cotton bird like if I threw a lot of the swimming pool that will not be there. So, here the training has to be done to the students as well as a service providers as well as they also should know what to expect and remember, it's like five to use the service and not be to if anybody who is tell me it is different from village to village and place to place from from state to state So, that training has to be given to the kids. The second point, I'll be talking about the like setting up centers to in will be the areas. first of all, we have to
understand. we have got many, many, many villages with many, many, many cultures but people who have who are interested to open their doors to the guests. that's also a first find out and the sense of centers through NGOs of are interested. um of people have some don't have to be there which will support Um mister I just uh it's maybe your relationship. It might be a family, whoever it is they need support or it's not one person job. They need
to have proper connectivity. They need to have a proper procurement of items Uh there might be emergencies and there's the centers has to be set up there which is a must and also uh we are talking about a lady, a woman who are comparing the woman but remember when a man loses money in a business, it's okay but well, should not be facing financial. So, those things have to be taken care of. A of a place should not be disturbed. So, this training also has to be given to the families and the guests. One of them, It's all,
that's all I must say. I hope I like people are really giving so many good ideas and I'm really like the enlightened and thank you so much for providing me the opportunity to thank you so much. Thank you, mister Panda. Thank you so much. Uh
your points again. So important II. Don't know which one to choose. You know, everybody is giving such important points that uh you know II cannot skip any. you know, I really need to summarize each and every point which each and every one of you has uh put up. So as miss Panda
also mentioned that uh training guests Now everybody spoke about entertaining uh the local community. I think this is the first one who spoke about you know uh a Clements guests to uh you know, what are they going to see what are they going be offered in terms of rural tourism. Uh so yes, that's a very very important point. Again, that's come across and um again, the man spoke about uh rural people who are you know, interested to open doors specifically women Um so your full support should be provided to uh you know these people so that uh you know they they don't feel uh left out or they don't feel that we have not received uh you know proper uh things what are required to set up the rural tourism environment of you know as an opening up their homes and uh setting up the rural tourism environment there. So, they
should not feel left out. So, that's what man mentioned as well and um also uh you spoke about the culture of a place which should not be disturbed. So, again, that's a very important aspect I think everybody has been uh kind of hitting on that that a culture of a place should not be disturbed. otherwise it won't be called Google Tourism. You know, if the culture changes uh probably if we would move you know, there would be a shift towards uh you know, tourism.
So, uh definitely the culture of a place should not be disturbed. So, thank you ma'am. Thank you so much for your uh again, very valid points. Uh I would uh next like to request Miss Sanjay to uh kindly put up your proposal points ma'am. Uh thank you so much and good afternoon and a very happy Independence Day from Mesmerizing Well, my line is a little the internet connection is a little unstable so I hope I can you know, speak uh through Uh I'm really really honored to be a part of this uh prestigious panelist and we'd like to thank Wiki and for this opportunity uh Mega has a lot to offer uh with regards to you know be the natural beauty, the mystifying uh waterfalls or the enchanting caves, the handicap hand rooms. Um you know, the um spices flora, lots of there and uh you know, everyone really speak about Mikala. We say, oh wow. uh shalom. Uh but do do we
speak more beyond shalom? You know, there's so much, there's so much and it's so rich and I think uh everything that we do with tourism if you if you reading it to work, uh the infrastructure is really really important. I resonate with all the important points that everyone has said and you know, we have such an infrastructure a very simple example like in we have beautiful kings, you know, um and waterfalls but then the roots to lead to that are so so dangerous at times and sometimes I wonder even when I'm going with my elderly parents or my children is god forbid the summoned thoughts and gets hurt. what would then happen? Is there a medical supply or a medical fan or a fan? So these are the things with You know, I would really, really improve the government to look at is establishing uh bio toilets which is very, very important. A basic need um establishing mobile medical vans because that's really important. I think another thing which I really do think would really help is um introducing uh tourists. We do have a little but you know, if you do introduce to uh and have a lot more of the woman, it would people traveling much feel more secure and safe, especially women travelers. um
you know, or a woman group, travelers, or even family for example, because you are going from a remote which is not very well known off. So, if you know that you have a support system there, um it would make you feel more secure. So, that is uh something which I was really really interested in with, you know, to promote uh and to press a comment The other thing We've talked about policy and I was doing a little bit of a study myself. I was trying to
encourage a few people and why don't you open your AB and B on a home state and there's so many schemes. You know, you have the mudra schemes, you have so many schemes but when you, you know, being a lonely person myself, I like looking out and getting more information but finding those information is so very tough. It's really, really tough. So, I would encourage you if you could have one platform, just one platform where you're bringing all the information together. So, the policies on how you set AB and B's uh contact details that people can get help the fundraising, uh you know, where you could put your finances, training opportunities, uh maybe get people to register. Um you
know, individuals who are willing to give you free training. If you have all this information together, then not only the government will find it easier because we'll get less queries but it will help everyone to, you know, sort of work and establish their limits because without that, it's very very difficult II know people who have tried and gave up because you know, they say, oh it's too much. So, you know, having that platform, I think it really, really help um and Mikala Go has done a lot. They are doing a lot. They are
promoting uh uh and uh handcrafts and uh a good thing about me is that you know, it's the society So, we have a lot of women entrepreneurs here and but yes, we can only succeed. So, if you have the platform to which is infrastructure from the government and um you know, uh a platform that you could have everything together. I think that's uh just two of my recommendations. Uh thank you so much. Thank you miss. Thank
you so much and uh uh again the same point of infrastructure I think comes out, you know, very strongly amongst all the participants that we have here uh and uh one the important point that I think you've spoke about is about having the tourists because I think nobody else has mentioned it till now and uh that is very for the people. uh the tourists who visit a particular place to feel safe especially women as you mentioned. Uh so, I think those are very valid points that you spoke about. Again, very important uh essential which uh need to be done and also uh again I think somebody else had also mentioned about this that we should have uh you know, ease of information sharing uh for the benefit of uh you know the business people, the tourism business people, or even the tourists themselves need to have ease of information for everybody. So,
thank you so much uh for your ballot inputs and uh thank you so much. Uh I would like to request next uh miss Lore
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