Rural India is Incredible, go & explore

KULLU: Encouraged by the success of its ���Incredible India��� campaign in attracting foreign tourists, the tourism ministry is now focussing on promoting tourism in rural India. Its ���explore rural India��� campaign, specifically designed to attract foreign tourists for a longer stay in the country and enhancing earnings of the local population, has identified more than 130 spots in the hinterland to be developed as tourist destinations.

As many as 36 of such spots are in an advanced stage of completion and have already started attracting tourists.

According to Kullu deputy commissioner Sudha Devi, tourist footfall in Naggar in Himachal Pradesh���a newly developed
rural tourism destination���has increased by 10-12% over the past year. Similar increase in tourist inflow has taken place in other rural tourist spots as well, a tourism ministry official said.

Besides improving infrastructure such as roads and street lights at the sites, the tourism ministry is stressing on imparting tourism-related skills to villagers. It has tied up with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide vocational training to locals. The ministry allocates Rs 50 lakh for infrastructure development at the rural sites while UNDP provides Rs 20 lakh for each site through the ministry for skills development.

���We manage to earn Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month by selling local products. We also provide home-stay to tourists for which we charge Rs 250 to Rs 1,500 depending upon the kind of facilities provided,��� Naggar panchayat head said. Naggar receives about 30,000 tourists annually.

The district administration helps local people in building basic infrastructure such as toilets and repairing houses by providing Rs 30,000 as subsidy on the loan amount.

���The response of the locals has been very impressive. We want to bring more and more villages under this project. We have identified another site called Nirmand which we plan to develop on the Naggar line,��� Ms Devi said.