Post Budget Webinar 2023

Theme 6: Leveraging Cultural Heritage for Tourism

Post- Webinar Feedback
1. How many participants attended / joined?

72 Participants joined for Theme-6 (17 Panellists + 55 Attendees)

2. How many hours did the webinar continue?

The Session continued for 2 hours (11:00 hrs – 13:00 hrs)

3. Who all from Government spoke and for how many minutes?

6 Government Officials spoke for a total of 40 Minutes.

1. Ms. Vidyavathi DG, ASI (Moderator) – 15 Min.

2. Shri. Janwich Sharma, ADG, ASI – 5 Min
3. Shri. Tendup Sherpa, Director Tourism, State Govt of West Bengal – 5 Min
4. Dr. Pankaj Sharma, Director, Archaeology Department, State Govt. of
Gujarat – 5 Min
5. Ms Pamela Satpathy, District Collector, Yadadri Bhuvanagiri District,
Telangana – 5 Min.
6. Dr. Vishal Kumar, District Collector, Unakoti, Tripura - 5 Min.

4. How many stakeholders / participants got opportunities to speak?

17 panellists spoke for an average of 5 minutes each.

5. What were their important concerns?

Points that were raised by the Moderator that steered the discussion were:

a) How do we leverage concerns of integrity of a monument vs development

within and around them without compromising its original character?
b) How to ensure increased and repeated footfalls to our monuments?
c) How to engage students and young professionals to visit monuments and
learn from their history?
d) How to encourage more places and monuments to be visited, apart from the
famous ones?

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Every panellist echoed their concerns and offered their expert comments. Succinctly,
these are summed up as follows:

1. Promoting digital mode of education and interpretation of monuments and

heritage places;
2. Having State-wise tourism and conservation policy for enhancement,
conservation, and management of heritage resource;
3. Involvement of local communities in conservation and management of
heritage resources. The role of local craftsperson can be crucial in curated
story-telling that is vital for dissemination of information;
4. Development of infrastructure within and around a heritage resource for
convenience to a visitor, including disabled friendly access, signages,
interpretation facilities;
5. Dissemination of authentic information about a monument or a place –
Doordarshan and Radio are still powerful tools for wider outreach.
Similarly, role of social media to be tapped to its full potential;
6. Education about heritage monuments and places – heritage walks, heritage
school clubs, special story telling sessions with students, local communities.
7. Heritage interpretation in digital format and improvement of monument
display boards and signages.
8. Tapping the vast resource of unprotected built heritage for experiential
tourism.
9. Options of developing financial model for converting heritage structures to
hotels, guest houses, cafeteria, home stays, etc.
10. Policy on how tourism can leverage conservation and maintenance of
monuments and heritage places to be developed;
11. Heritage as an overall memorable experience for a visitor, e.g., G20 summit
in Khajuraho was a great experience that everyone appreciated;
12. India’s great asset is its living heritage that needs to be tapped to its full
potential in terms of promoting tourism at a place;
13. Create Cultural Leadership programme for youth and local communities.
Special courses could be developed on Indian Cultural Heritage
Management;
14. Various categories of heritage to be explored: Nature, forests, mountains,
landscapes, trails, etc.

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15. Integration of tangible and intangible heritage for promoting of tourism at a
place or a monument;
16. India to have more world heritage properties in years to come for the
international recognition to the sites that they deserve. This will also
promote tourism and generate livelihood;
17. National Education Policy and Tourism: Capacity building of the youth for
tourism and associated crafts related initiatives;
18. Traditional storytelling and its potential to be tapped;
19. Developing cultural spaces within and around monuments for wider
participation and events (contextual to the monument);
20. How tourism around monument can contribute to the local economy?
Strategies for the same to be developed;
21. Carrying capacity of monuments and places (including areas within that are
inaccessible) is a challenge. AI based solutions need to be worked out;
22. Tapping storyline of monuments / places and presenting it authentically to
the visitors, curating the experience is crucial;
23. How hoteliers can create a more conducive experience for a visitor by
providing them good quality accommodation and other infrastructure;
24. Culture (intangible) to be promoted in its own context to make it
sustainable and effective to the communities who are integral to it rather
than converting them to events / shows elsewhere;
25. Culture and Tourism are not merely products or assets but to be seen to
possess sustainable value;
26. Guiding within a monument or a place to be formalised. More facilities to
be provided to them. They need to be trained and certified;
27. Focus on improving connectivity and related infrastructure to reach a
monument or a place comfortably especially in North-Eastern region;
28. Creation of tourist amenities, experience, and other interventions at various
protected heritage sites for bringing huge economic value in the region
along the same lines as development of Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
29. Development of experiential tourism products especially at spiritual
tourism destinations such as Char-Dham thereby ensuring enhanced length
of stay and ensure greater contribution to the local economy.

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 30. India's rich cultural heritage largely remains unutilized due to lack of
packaging them as wholesome tourism product/experience. Tourism
Ministry may develop tourism amenities at heritage sites, introduce digital
interventions, develop tourism experiences, and market them.
31. Moderator’s concluding remark: Learning to respect heritage is most
crucial – consciousness and respect towards our culture and monuments
needs to be inculcated amongst children, youth, local communities, visitors
etc.

6. Coverage of the Webinar in Media in General

o Social Media
o Traditional Media

The Post Budget Webinar was extensively covered on various social media handles of
the Ministry of Tourism. The event was live streamed through YouTube and was also
amplified through the other social media platforms of the Ministry like Facebook,
Instagram etc. The event was announced on social media in advance and YouTube
links were shared. Key aspects as highlighted by Hon’ble Prime Minister during his
address were highlighted through social media posts. Further, separate posts
highlighting important issues raised by Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Culture and
DoNER and issues highlighted during six thematic sessions were also amplified
through separate tweets.

7. Feedback may be in the form of suggestions from the Ministries/

stakeholders on the following aspects:
a. Manner of structuring of the webinar
b. On how successful the webinar was in addressing aspects
related to implementation of the announcements
c. Whether adequate opportunity was provided for speaking.
d. Whether they feel that have contributed to the outcome
outlined at the end of the seminar.
 The webinar was very well structured and organised jointly by MoT / MoC.
 The webinar was successful in gathering valuable feedbacks and inputs from
various stakeholders including industry experts and local representatives
which are relevant for development and growth for the sector.

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 All the panellists got the opportunity to speak and present their ideas which
was followed by a fruitful interactive session.
 All the panellists were actively participating in the discussion and were able to
provide valuable suggestions that may pave a way for future discussion and
development of a comprehensive strategy for leveraging cultural heritage for
tourism in an effective manner.

8. Suggestions may be sought from the participating

Ministries/CPSEs/ State Governments /State PSEs and
stakeholders such as Private sector/Citizens.

Suggestions as given above under point no. 5