The ambitious Home Stay project of Uttarakhand would be showcased in a tableau at Rajpath during Republic Day parade this year. The tableau based on village tourism has figured in the final list released by the Ministry of Defence.
The Director General (DG) of Information, Pankaj Kumar Pandey said 30 States and 20 Ministries had sent their proposals to the expert committee but entries of 14 states and seven ministries were finally selected. He elaborated that the selection of tableau is long process in which an expert committee gives its judgement based on subject selection, presentation of design, 3 -D Model and music. Pandey informed that the tableau from the state were shown on Republic day in the year 2003 (Fuldei), 2005 (Nanda Rajjat), 2006 (Valley of flowers), 2007 (Corbett National Park), 2009 (Adventure Tourism), 2010 (Kumbh Fair), 2014 (herbs), 2015 (Kedarnath) and 2016 (Ramman).
He said that the state government is taking effective measures to promote rural tourism in Uttarakhand. The home stay project is being operated in many villages and results of infrastructure development and tourism in villages have yielded positive results. Pandey added that all these measures apart from ensuring socio -economic development have created new and better avenues for employment generation in Uttarakhand.
The front portion of the tableau would showcase men and women in traditional costumes in a wooden house while middle portion would depict rural background, folk dance and tourists enjoying bio diversity while the last portion would show the concept of home stay in the houses with traditional architecture amid snow covered mountains.
Pandey said that Uttarakhand, the Dev Bhoomi has got tremendous potential for development of rural tourism as the art, culture and rural lifestyle captivates the tourists. The Government is trying to ensure local participation by promoting rural tourism which is sensitive towards environment, cultural tourism and eco tourism in the State, he added.