While these lamentations continue, there were a few who also blamed the hotel owners for not working together.
Owners of ancestral heritage properties have been throwing up new ideas for their hotels in order to promote themselves across Gujarat and outside. The one complaint that echoed jarringly at their 26th annual meeting on Thursday was — government apathy towards them.
"Tourism in Gujarat needs an integrated approach; currently only the stakeholders, the tourism industry, is benefiting from the promotion blitz. By integrated approach we mean the entire tourism industry, which includes heritage hotels, giving incentives and the whole gamut of things. Most importantly, we need a heritage tourism policy, which is absent for nearly 8 years", said Ranjit Sinh Parmar, founder and CEO, Palace of India-Camps of India.
Back from foreign lands, the younger lot of the heritage lineage are back to their ancestral homes and villages supporting their family and state's heritage. Princess Aaliya Sultana Babi from Balasinor blames the government for giving a deaf ear to their pleas.
"We haven't had a government representative in our meeting for long, which shows their negligence towards us. We have been on our own, promoting our properties and surrounding environment through brochures, campaigns, local advertisements and internet, using our own money. If the government could provide us with soft loans and also promote our properties in their videos, things could change", feels Princess Aaliya.
However, as secretary of Heritage Hotels Association, Kumar Harendrapal Sinh Poshina, says, government representatives have come for their meetings only 4 times. "Six years ago, Abhay Mangaldas, Mandhata Sinh of Rajkot and Rakesh Mathur, president of Welcome Heritage, had given a draft of the heritage policies including those of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to the government. To date that file has been gathering dust. All that Gujarat is currently doing is aping the West."
With Rs500 crore as funds received for promoting tourism in the state, why is heritage and culture of the state missing out, asks Rao Gopal Sinh Poshina, coordinator of the association who also mentioned that 30-40 properties are waiting for the heritage policy in the state to be passed so as to revive their heritage structures before selling them off.
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