Tourism and promotion of culture
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 09 2015 -

Generally Cultural tourism is understood as travel and visits directed toward experiencing the arts, heritage and special character of an identified location.

Its unique selling point has been the exclusivity of the place compared to other known destinations.

Over the years, culture has been given prominence in promoting tourism.

While doing so, there have also been credible debates on what actually constitutes culture and what are the areas encompassed by cultural tourism.

However, in the debate over the promotion of tourism in Northeast of India, it has often been stressed that the concepts need to be neatly packaged and marketed.

This basically calls for commoditization of culture whether one likes it or not.

Here, it should be remembered that the culture packaged and marketed can never be equated with the living culture of a particular society.

Moreover, there have also been observers who have argued that culture cannot be solely defined by what has been officially accepted as some redundant bureaucratic minnows and their advisors have done in recent years.

The variegated traditions of a region like the Northeast of India are actually alive throughout the year with no specific temporal demarcations.

Furthermore, cultural tourism focuses on people who travel around the world to experience heritage, religious and art sites to develop knowledge of different communities and their way of life.

The tourists’ interests can include performing arts, festivals visits to historic sites and monument, education tours, museums, natural heritage sites and religious festivals.

And hence, the idea of neat packaging and marketing comes only when one can overcome the limits set by traditionalists who argue that authentic cultural items could be exhibited during a set timeline which suits the convenience of the States that patronize holding of such events.

It should however be remembered that while embarking on the objective of packaging culture and traditions, the question of representation should always be given top priority.

Whether or not culture has been marketed in the garb of state sponsored festivals or not, it should be noted that even the idea of observing festivals are associated with key calendar moments, linked specifically to particular seasons and heritage sites.

Any festival around the world despite its primary emphasis on preserving culture has also been associated with commercial aspects.

How this aspect has been simulated in the context of tourism promotion needs to be further looked into.