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| Heritage as Tourism Product | | | Mahesh koul | 4/18/2011 7:59:39 PM |
| Heritage is the product of the cultural assets and values attributed to a particular community, group society or nation that has immense bearing on the day to day life of the human societies. To inculcate the heritage sense among the social groups should be the prime motivation in developing heritage as a specialized tourism product that can create tourist gaze in the destination area. The sense of cultural awareness is directly associated with the incorporation of heritage in the comprehensive tourism policy and its implementation.
It is amply clear from the historical evolution of the Jammu region that the cultural canvas is immensely rich and includes almost every shades of tangible and intangible heritage assets that can bring the region on the heritage tourism circuit of the state .And not only that its cultural growth is clearly liked with the evolution of the Indian nation as the fountain head of the Sanskrit civilization. The archaeological remains and excavations as discussed above remove all doubts about the Jammu’s importance in the development interactions with the people of the other parts of the country.
The forts, palaces, temples and other shrines that form the part of the Jammu’s landscape are the living tangible monuments that have stood the test of the time and add flavor of sophistication to the geography and the matchless history of the Jammu region.
The intangible aspects in terms of folk lore, dance forms, art and cuisines that have come down from generations and are still prevalent and relevant in the present society of Jammu add another feature to the cultural magnificence of the region.
Cultural heritage should take the significant position in the tourist supply of the Jammu region. Marketing activities should be directed towards this objective. It will immensely contribute towards the quality of the tourist supply and will help to significantly help to upgrade the value of cultural heritage .heritage cannot be handled by the raw hands of so called tourism exerts who have ventured into the business from bureaucracy and become overnight experts in the business without having the conceptual and technical insight into the sensitivities of the tourism in general and the heritage in particular. Heritage tourism can thrive only in Jammu region if the multi disciplinary approach is adopted to devise the overall strategy for its marketing .It needs to include the tourism professionals, conservators, historians, policy makers, etc to formulate a comprehensive mechanism for the heritage tourism in the region. The need is to develop the already present heritage in various forms a product and target the consumer by creating the gaze for the assets who have remained virgin due to the lack of the understanding of the treasure in the form of heritage. But it is not enough to have heritage at one’s disposal. Heritage needs to be managed with expertise and long term planning. Heritage tourism or heritage tourism planning can give maximum possible benefits if it is treated as a function of tourism.
Before bringing the heritage in the tourism orbit the following steps need to be given due consideration:
• Identification of the heritage assets
• Documentation
• Conservation and Preservation
• Multidisciplinary task force
• Marketing plan
The process of heritage tourism strategy should start with the identification of the heritage assets in Jammu region so that a complete inventory of the places is made in a proper manner. It will help to create an awareness level at the first instance in the technical level by involving the various professionals like historians and archaeologists who will be of immense help to locate the time frame of the monuments and help in their proper listing for the future course of action.
Documentation process is another step that should be professionally implemented to create proper archives after the identification has been successfully carried out. The diversified heritage and culture spread all over the Jammu region encompassing all the principalities’ of the erstwhile Jammu Raj needs the comprehensive documentation that takes into account both the tangible and intangible aspects of the heritage of the region. It includes the palaces, forts, temples, and buildings of significance besides the fairs, festivals, folk lore’s and ethnic food that lends the sense of distinctiveness’ to the entire heritage of the Jammu region.
The neglect, discriminative attitude of the administrators’, lack of awareness, low degree of emotional attachment and motivation of the local population who are the main stakeholders and supposed beneficiaries of the heritage assets are the main reasons of the pitiful condition of the heritage structures in the region. Mubarak Mandi, the group of palaces is the worst example of the dilapidated condition of the tangible heritage in the Jammu region. Now after advocacy and sensitization of the local population about the secular reuse and the economic value in terms of tourism business and the cultural identification has prompted the state government to start the restoration work of the complex but the project is still in the preliminary stage and infancy. Moti Mahal is Poonch is another example of lack of awareness and absence of disaster management techniques in the region, which witnessed a severe damage during the earthquake of 2005. Samba Fort, Poonch House are a just a peep into the devastation meted out to the heritage which can otherwise be a heritage tourism product of great value not only at the national level but at the international level. To restore these heritage monuments to at least certain time frame is a great challenge so that these structures can be utilized for the tourism business and incorporated into the tourism policy by taking heritage as a function of the greater tourism business. This cannot be realized in isolation but by involving the conservators and professionals like conservation architects. Conservation and preservation is the important aspect as will help to restore the tangible and intangible heritage to the presentable form. It will help to make its re use possible in the most secular way by involving various stakeholders at different levels. (Vierda, 1995)
After documentation and going through the process of preservation and conservation there is a need to create the multidisciplinary task force comprising not only of the historians, tourism professionals, conservators, conservation architects but it should also include the people from the administration who can act the enforcers of the devised formulation for the heritage tourism as the function of the tourism business. The inclusion of the social scientists, anthropologists and other specialists from media and other inter related areas is of equal significance as to create the tourist gaze inputs and expertise of all the direct and indirectly allied profession will lay down the foundations for the sustainable heritage tourism development and broaden the prospects of the heritage tourism in the Jammu region.
The ultimate outcome of this process should lead to the creation of multi disciplinary task force based on involving all the professionals from all the concerned fields discussed above. It will help to implement the heritage tourism policy devised by the professionals and all those who have state in the tourism business.
To create the niche market for the heritage tourism in the Jammu region there will be un urgent need to devise marketing strategies once the product has been created and available for the consumption of the tourist .So far there has been no exclusive marketing plan for the heritage tourism in the region that can show case it. The so called marketing strategies and campaigns have been devised by keeping in view the general tourism marketing or the marketing that is supposed to project the whole tourism assets of the state and is not comprehensive as it leaves out the niche market of the heritage in Jammu.
For the successful marketing of the Jammu’s heritage there needs to be the complete integration of all the heritage assets with the help of the interpretation centre’s which can be easily established within the heritage complexes like museums , palaces and fortes.
The marketing aspects should treat heritage tourism as the function of the tourism business and not in isolation from it. By treating heritage and hence heritage tourism as the important component of the tourism will not only allow it to grow as the specialized form of the tourism but it will enable in the long run to give the dimension of sustainability to the tourism in the comprehensive manner.
The marketing aspect should first involve the sensitization of the local people of Jammu who will be the foremost stakeholders and the immediate beneficiaries of the whole process of the development of the heritage tourism. A sense of preservation of the heritage in terms of the asset value and secular reuse should be the main focus of the whole process of exploring the prospects of the heritage tourism and its marketing in the Jammu region. All the above mentioned steps if considered and implemented in systematic and time bound manner will yield to the development of the heritage tourism model that will bring the heritage of the Jammu region on the national and international map.
Conclusion
Jammu region of the Jammu and Kashmir state is blessed with both tangible and the intangible heritage which has been neglected and not incorporated into the wider tourism circuit. The reason being the political discrimination and lack of sensitization of the local populace about the significance and economic viability of the heritage tourism. Which has resulted in the neglect of the heritage, especially the tangible heritage to such an extent that the structures like forts and palaces are in a dilapidated condition? The need is to treat heritage tourism in this region as the function of the tourism only then it can thrive in the true tourism sense. The need is to identify the heritage tourism assets of the region and then devise the proper documentation mechanism so that a proper inventory is developed which can be integrated into a well defined tourism product by employing the proper marketing strategy with the help of the multidisciplinary approach of the varied professionals, who can constitute task force for the application of the mechanism developed from this integrated process. Once this procedure is brought into action it will lead to the heritage tourism development model that will lead to the bright prospects of the overall tourism business in the region.
References
Charak, S.D.S (1983). History and Culture of Himalayan States, New Delhi:Light & Life Publishers.
Drew, Frederic (1875). The Jammoo and Kashmir Territories: a geographical account, London: Edward Stanford.
Kaul, P.K. (1993). Himalayan Principalities in Jammu, Kangra and Bhaderwah. Jammu: Jay Kay Book House,.
Lumsdon, L (1999). Tourism Marketing. London: Thomson.
Middleton, V.T.C. (1994). Marketing in travel and tourism. , Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Vierda, V (1995). Restoration of Monuments and Tourism. Tourism and Hospitality Management,Vol.1,No.2,pp.413-420
Williams, A & Balaz. V (2000). Tourism and Transition: Economic Change in Central Europe. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers.
****(Writer is a PhD scholar at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, SHTM, University of Jammu, President Sangarsh and chairman Heritage Initiative Foundation. This research paper was first published in the journal of International Conference on sustainable tourism(SDEIAT),February 2011,organized by University of Jammu,Jammu)
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