Saloni Bhatia – New Delhi
In order to promote heritage tourism of the country, Aman Nath, chairman, Neemrana Hotels has initiated the concept of Heritage 365. The event held on November 25 and 26 in New Delhi featured design, fashion, crafts, jewellery, lifestyle and heritage tourism. Heritage 365 is a unique public-private partnership venture between the TNM Foundation and the governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan along with the embassy of Italy. Nath informed, “We hope that heritage will not just be locked away as a vestige of the past that more and more craft products will be used daily by discerning guests. Also, using heritage properties for holidays will take development to far flung regions and make us more India proud – all the 365 days.”
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, H E Lorenzo Angeloni, ambassador of Italy to India, stated, “Cultural heritage is certainly one of the most important asset of Italy and we have persevered it over the years. There are many locations in India like Hampi that have great scope of being promoted as heritage destinations. Through this initiative we would like to join forces with the Indian states and work on restoration as we will be able to share our experience on the science of conservation.”
Preeti Sinha, vice president, Yes Culture, added, “Yes Culture has worked on four areas to make a unique development model for India, namely craft clusters, heritage management, food culture and spiritual tourism. We will identify projects with the help of governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to make sure the heritage is being well preserved.”
Deepika Roy Choudhary, general manager, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation; N Srivastava, commissioner, department of tourism of Gujarat and Sanjay Pande, additional director, department of tourism of Rajasthan were also present at the conference to talk about the potential in the three states.
Heritage 365 will showcase and promote brand Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and garner recognition for these states. The entire event has been conceptualised and organised by Vandana Haksar and Gunjan Mubayi.