CSR funds can breathe new life into Indian tourism
₹175 crore in FY19 to ₹362 crore in FY22, a year-on-year increase of 27%. This is still less than 3% of the total CSR spending leaving the bulk of funds untapped for tourism development. If planned better, “Adopt a Heritage 2.0" can leverage these funds to create thriving tourist ecosystems across India, and those ecosystems are sorely needed.
It is no secret that the tourism potential of India is untapped, capturing less than 2% of the global tourism market. While we have been slowly building new attractions, our existing heritage sites are underutilised. Whether the forts of the Western Ghats or micro attractions like Char Minar, these sites hold true international appeal.
However, due to insufficient prioritisation, we have been unable to leverage our heritage sites and transform them into global attractions. Heritage Conservation efforts under Adopt a Heritage were supposed to have dual benefits. Firstly, they were supposed to help share the financial burden of heritage conservation.
But more importantly, they were supposed to be catalysts for developing a tourism-focused economy. However, while CSR has done its part, it is critical to realize that tourism does not happen in a vacuum and the government needs to provide an enabling regulatory and governance ecosystem to catalyse tourism-related investment. The first edition of the "Adopt a Heritage" scheme aimed to focus on the development, upgradation, and maintenance of amenities and facilities.
However, it completely neglected other elements required for a thriving tourism industry. This limited approach can work where monuments are in existing tourist hubs but will not work where there is no supporting ecosystem. Take for example the Lal Qila (Red Fort).
Read more on livemint.com
