UNESCO to launch Heritage Passport Programme in four states

New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) Leveraging India's cultural assets for development, UNESCO will launch the Indian Heritage Passport Programme in four pilot states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

The programme, a collaborative effort of UNESCO, the Tourism Ministry and the state governments concerned, will be launched at a 'Seminar on Heritage Tourism in India' here tomorrow.

Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni will address the concluding session of the seminar, while Tourism Secretary A. K. Mishra will give the inaugural address.

The seminar will be attended by over 100 participants from all over the country, including representatives of Central and state tourism departments, NGOs and other stakeholders in the tourism industry.

Also, international experts who will guide the technical sessions and share some successful practices from other countries that could be replicated within the Indian context, have been invited.

Heritage monuments and sites, natural parks, traditional crafts, music, dance, theatre, cuisine, and its many rituals as well as films, contemporary art and fashion comprise India's famed treasures of cultural and natural resources.

''The Heritage Passport Programme proposes to reassess these local cultural and natural resources with a view to developing new tourism itineraries stretching all across the target States through synergetic partnerships among all stakeholders,'' UNESCO said in a statement.

The programme, envisages extending the revenue stream down to the local level, thereby providing the much-needed developmental impetus, it said.

''Heritage-based tourism, with its multiplier effects, can create the dynamics to invest in heritage conservation, creativity, education of the visitors and inhabitants as well as capacity building of local authorities and the business community for the sustainable management of India's cultural resources for the benefit of all,'' UNESCO said.

Some of the questions that will come up for discussions are: Are these potentials fully utilised for the benefit of the local communities? How could this wealth be further tapped into as an engine for development? How could we gear this diversity towards inter-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding? Tourism, if carefully designed, would be a meaningful tool to respond to such concerns, the UN cultural body said.

The major objectives of the programme are: . Establish a model where heritage-based tourism becomes a motor for poverty reduction and sustainable development; · Engage the public and private sector involved in tourism to contribute to adult literacy and life-long education, small enterprise development among the local communities of heritage destinations; · Ensure that enhanced revenues are channelled into the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage, environmental protection as well as support to the local creative industries.

Some of the activities proposed under the programme are: Mapping of local cultural resources and tourism facilities at state-level; development of several themed itineraries, such as Buddhist Route, Legends of Shiva, Yoga and Ayurvedic healing); designing of a Heritage Passport and booklets; and development of a "Charter for Local Development through Heritage Tourism" to be adopted by the tourism sector.

The activities also include labelling and networking of hotels and guesthouses committed to adaptive re-use of historic building; promotion of rail-based tourism as a commitment to environmentally-conscious mass public transport system; and creation of local Heritage Funds supported through Public-Private Partnership schemes.