Question: What is the role of cultural heritage in tourism?
Speaking on this, Prof. Sandeep Kulshrestha said – The reality is that the governments of the country also understood that both the culture and tourism of the country should be collected. I believe that culture is the backbone of tourism. The reality is that when we talk about tourism in the country, we talk about the Sanatan tradition, then it is seen in the Sanatan tradition that when people used to go to the country, they wanted to know more about their culture. And when we talk about culture, heritage is included in it. Similarly, when we talk about modern tourism, there has been a change in the mind especially in the last three years. Which we talk about consumer behavior or tourist behavior. If seen in the time of this corona, people want to see culture and heritage. The Ministry of Tourism also says that in the coming times, tourists will want to go especially to see the heritage and see the culture. Apart from the country, if we talk about abroad, then the tourist wants to see the streets of Banaras, not the skyscraper. Somewhere, if we take culture with us, then the success of tourism is more.
Question: Ratnam sir what do you say about the role of cultural heritage in tourism?
I understand that culture, tourism and heritage cannot exist without each other. I believe that definitely tourism or our heritage or culture, especially when we are talking about tourism, we have to first catch the pulse of our country, what is our spirit? What is our psycho mindset, of the particular country. So when we will discuss this, in cultural context, when we do concepts of beauty in Indian and western context, we will see that our India has been a spiritual country, philosophy based, India has the highest priority of values in realization. And for this reason, whoever we have foreign tourists, then when a particular tourist comes to our India, then our culture is our heritage to him. Which is mainly culture. When our Prime Minister announced the Amrit Mahotsav, to announce the Amrit Mahotsav on the day of Dandi Yatra and the hypothesis that our history of resistance since 1498, it is very clear that the gaps of our cultural resistance are history. In the U.S., it is also necessary to fill such historical gaps. Keeping our heritage in front of the society, keeping it as a tourism product and marketing it, when these three things are included, then India’s tourism will definitely affect the world.
Question: Sir, which is our art, culture and tourism, we are not able to give it as a product or if we are able to give it then we have become very limited. What are your views on this?
Shri Mukund Srivastava ji, while giving his views on this, said – whether it is the domain of culture or your ICT is the domain of culture, the domain of communication technology, or any scientific domain, then we start that first to know that our What is Culture Legacy? In the cultural domain, I think it will be in 2017 when the Honorable Prime Minister gave directions to the Ministry of Culture and one of his concepts was ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’, the cultural legacy we have in different places. Basically, at the policy level, I talk about the efforts made by the Government of India and what is happening. In the same way, another scheme was Culture Mapping of India, so if there is any cultural genre or art form in our corner, then first we should find out where, what? So along with the Culture Mapping of India, Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat, the culture of one place should be known to another place. Your cultural heritage is a legacy and tourism is intertwined.
Question-Sir, tell me what do you think are the gaps, which we are not able to do practically?
Sandeep ji said – which is the tourism of India, which is the art, which is the culture, we have to modify it a little and keeping in mind our eternal values, we have to serve the tourists today in a new way. When our Prime Minister goes abroad, he talks about five teas, in which one tea comes from tourism. Our tourism is our traditional value. Our future is very bright. We have to think holistically.