Communally sensitive tag hits tourism hard

State doing nothing to promote heritage tourism: Experts

Speakers after speakers at a seminar on Heritage Tourism, organised here as part of Vibrant Gujarat Navratri 2004, said that major reason why heritage tourism has not picked up in the state is that the 'communally sensitive' tag attached to Gujarat after the riots has kept away tourists from visiting heritage monuments.

Added to that the state government's inertia in doing anything to promote the tourism.

Speaking at the seminar, Yuvraj Digvijaysinh, owner of the Wankaner Palace and two heritage hotels of Wankaner, said that the perception that Gujarat is communally sensitive, is one of the major impediments in development of heritage tourism in Gujarat.

"Add this perception to an acute shortage of infrastructure facilities and it is not hard to find out why Gujarat lags behind almost all other states as far as popularity of its heritage sites is concerned," said Digvijaysinh, who is also president of the Gujarat heritage Hotels Association.

Citing the example of Rajasthan, where heritage tourism has grown by leaps and bounds over the past three decades, Digvijaysinh said that the Rajasthan government gave out cash subsidy of as much as Rs 25-30 lakh for those who wanted to set up heritage hotels.

"I believe the government needs to do far more than it is doing at present. Owners of heritage sites meanwhile, are doing whatever they can to preserve these palaces that they have inherited," he said.

H P Rama, owner of several hotels in the US and an office bearer of the hotel association there, said - "As a businessman, I would definitely not bring people to Gujarat, as the infrastructure facilities at heritage sites are grossly inadequate. If you invite a guest and you cannot serve properly, he will go back and tell ten others not to go to Gujarat. So, more infrastructure facilities must be put in place quickly," said Rama.

Anil Patel, minister of state for tourism, said that while the government will do all things possible to promote the growth of tourism, it is also in talks with several Gujarat businessmen based outside the country.

"We are in talks with several Gujaratis based elsewhere in the world and are exploring possibilities of them being partners in promotion of tourism projects in the state," he said.

Some of the heritage sites that the government of Gujarat is promoting as part of the Vibrant Gujarat Navratri 2004 event are the Indus Valley Civilisation sites, Pavagadh, Champaner, Dholavira and Kutch, Gurudwara Lakhpat and several palaces and `havelis' of former princely states.