State Tourism minister Dinesh Dhanai has directed department officials to identify a couple of villages in each district for developing their rural tourism potential. The minister said this
while chairing a meet to review the Uttarakhand rural tourism upliftment scheme on Tuesday.
He said that the unemployed people in villages should be linked to tourism activities so that self employment helps mitigate the migration of people from villages in mountainous regions. Stating that many tourists prefer to stay amidst rural culture away from the din of the city, Dhanai said that village homes should be spruced up under the home stay scheme while roads should be constructed to enable tourists to spend nights in villages.
Principal secretary, Tourism, Umakant Panwar said that 37 villages have been marked in the State under the first stage of the scheme. The department officials have to first focus on identification of villages, developing a software on availability of rooms in the village, training of the building owner and sanitation. Secondly, community asset, participation of the community and routes in villages should also be focused upon. Stating marketing as the third important area of focus for this scheme, Panwar said that photographs and videos of the villages should be used for publicity through the internet to attract tourists. With home stays being an important link in tourism, the department should prepare 1,000 home stays this year, he said.
The principal secretary also asked the officials to work on the possibility of developing tourism circuit linked to areas with water bodies. Additional secretary, Tourism, Ashish Joshi, additional director Arun Dwivedi, joint director RP Bharadwaj and other department officials were also present in the meeting.