Thursday, December 20, 2007

Missing guides of Sanchi !

“Hindustan ka Dil Dekho”, is one of the brilliant eye catching advertisement undertaken by the State of Madhya Pradesh to bring in more tourists to the state’s rich cultural heritage. But on other hand, state lacks infrastructure which can match the tourism growth. Apart from bad connectivity, places to stay in tourist destinations, what tourism in Madhya Pradesh is also lacking is limited number of well-trained guides to help tourists in understanding the rich heritage of the State. Interesting figures have come up in media from Sanchi, which eight officially licensed tourist guides but only three are normally available rest five are always missing. Sanch is the stupa village, situated 45 km away from Bhopal and is World Heritage Site. The locals say that the license was given to guides who are not the locals and are hardly there to guide tourist visiting the heritage. Also they don’t know much about the stupa. Stupa is visited by large number during winters and needs to match by equal number of tourist guides. A tourist guide not only leads groups of people around the venue and provides a commentary on the features, history of the destination but contributes considerably to the perception of the destination. Tourist guide helps in promoting the cultural and natural heritage and also helps to ensure its sustainability by making visitors aware of its importance and vulnerability.

In fact CII in its reports on tourism lays special importance on tourist guides and a need to train them. Guide's knowledge of local stories, history and culture adds value to the interest of the visiting tourist and which one remembers for years to come

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

from teachers to hiv now to counting guides !! so what next man !

Anonymous said...

short one and good one, do u have figure of how many guides are missing in india

shehla Masood said...

a single negative encounter can undo our positive image.

http://letzchangedrulz-miracles.blogspot.com/2007/11/trumpet-lasted-for-12-months.html