Invisible India

The success stories, such as they are, are remarkably few and far between. Some states 8212; Rajasthan and Kerala, possibly 8212; have done a better job than others. It took us five decades to come up with the idea of opening the Taj Mahal for night sightings, but to this day 8212; as The Sunday Express report highlighted 8212; the Taj remains completely removed from its setting. While millions throng Shah Jehan8217;s monument to love, they find Agra unappealing and sometimes downright dangerous. In Orissa, the timeless appeal of Konark is slowly crumbling into the dust thanks to primitive conservation techniques and an unconscionable apathy. There will be many sad tales to come, some more dire than others certainly, but all of them testifying to a grave lack of the tourist vision thing.

Everywhere in the world, the tourism industry is thinking out of the box and moving on. Take Italy, for instance, which has learnt to marry conservation with tourism without succumbing to the dangers of vulgarising its heritage. Two basic insights drive its tourism. One, that there is need to raise financial resources quite independently of government funding. Two, that there is an increasing desire from today8217;s travellers for high quality and value-added services. A museum then becomes more than a mere collection of artefacts, it becomes a narrative experience. A monument becomes more than a mere collection of stones, it becomes a backdrop to re-enacted history. India needs to look at its heritage sites with new eyes. And, yes, it needs to look beyond the Taj.