Santa is sitting glumly outside his empty shop, swatting a fly with a newspaper.
He watches a long line of tourist cars and buses whizzing past on the new highway across the river, barely slowing down.
“Look at that, Banta!” he complains as Banta joins him.
“Hundreds of cars, thousands of pilgrims and tourists!”
“The government says tourist numbers have doubled!”
“But my Galla feels lighter than ever.”
“It’s like a huge wedding procession is passing by, but no one is stopping to give any Shagun!”
Banta looks at the speeding traffic, then at the quiet, almost deserted market street of their town.
“Ah, Santa,” he says with a sigh, “we were sold the dream of a mighty river of prosperity, but it seems they forgot to build any canals to our fields.”
“A river of prosperity?”
“It feels more like a Dhokha!” Santa grumbles.
“More tourists should mean more business!”
“We made a simple mistake in our calculations, Santa,” Banta explains.
“We, and perhaps our leaders, became obsessed with counting the number of Gaadiyan on the road, instead of counting the number of tourists who actually step out of them and into our shops.”
“The success of tourism isn’t just about headcount; it’s about heart-spend and hand-spend.”
“Heart-spend?”
“Hand-spend?” Santa asks, puzzled.
“Yes,” Banta continues.
“How much do they connect with our place is heart-spend, and how much do they actually spend with their hands on our local products and services is hand-spend?”
“In the old days, the journey was longer, the roads narrower.”
“People had to stop here for the night.”
“They would stay in our guesthouses, eat at our dhabas, buy local Prasad and maybe a shawl.”
“Their one-day halt meant their money stayed in our town, supporting dozens of families.”
He points to the highway.
“Now, this wide Makkhan ki Road makes the journey so fast that they just zoom past.”
“They think, Why stop in Rudraprayag when we can reach Auli or perhaps Badrinath itself by the evening?”
“The car that whizzes by might be full of tourists, but its money stays locked inside its wallet.”
“For us, it’s just a river of speeding cars and lost coins, flowing past without irrigating our livelihoods.”
Santa looks devastated.
“So, the new road that was supposed to bring the market closer has actually taken the customers away?”
“It’s like building a big water channel that is so smooth and fast that the water refuses to enter the smaller canals leading to the farms!”
“A perfect, and heart breaking, analogy, Santa,” Banta says grimly.
“We traded the steady, life-giving flow of a meandering stream for the brief, impressive sight of a fleeting flood.”
“A more sustainable approach would be to create attractions here, to give people a reason to halt, to experience our town’s unique culture and history, so that the journey itself becomes a destination.”
“Otherwise, our traditional halting stations will just become milestones on a highway to somewhere else.”
#piyoosh #piyooshrautela #riskavoider #riskavoideracademy
संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-
- पर्यटन की सफलता को स्थानीय निवासियों को होने वाले आर्थिक लाभ से आंकना चाहिये, न कि पर्यटकों की संख्या से / The success of tourism should be measured by economic benefits to local communities (e.g., duration of stay, visitor spending patterns), not just by raw tourist headcount.
- क्षेत्र व स्थानीय लोगो से जुड़ाव की अपेक्षा केवल गति को प्राथमिकता देने वाला अवसंरचना विकास अनुत्पादक हो सकता है और इससे परम्परागत पड़ावों व कस्बो की अर्थव्यवस्था पर प्रतिकूल प्रभाव भी पड़ सकता है / Infrastructure development that prioritizes speed over local engagement can be counterproductive, leading to the economic decline of traditional halting stations and towns.
- चिरस्थायी व दूरदर्शी पर्यटन रणनीति को नये आकर्षणों व अनुभवों के विकास पर केन्द्रित होना चाहिये और इसे पर्यटकों को रास्ते में पड़ने वाले शहरों व स्थानीय निवासियों के मध्य समय व्यतीत करने व धन व्यय करने को प्रोत्साहित करने वाला होना चाहिये / A sustainable tourism strategy should focus on developing attractions and experiences that encourage tourists to spend more time and money in local communities along travel routes.
संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये
व
इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।
हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं और सच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने को प्रेरित होते हैं।
सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।
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