Kumarakom, Beypore find place in Centre’s Swadesh Darshan 2.0

Subject : History

Two more tourism destinations in Kerala have made it to the list of places selected for the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme of the Union Ministry of Tourism.
As per an office memorandum released by the Union Ministry of Tourism, Kumarakom in Kottayam and Beypore in Kozhikode have been selected along with 34 other destinations from 19 states and Union Territories for development under the Swadesh Darshan 2.0 Scheme.
In Swadesh Darshan scheme 1.0 importance was given to circuit tourism, the 0 version aims at developing specific destinations.

Swadesh Darshan 2.0

Swadesh Darshan 2.0 is not an incremental change but a generational shift to evolve the Swadesh Darshan Scheme as a holistic mission to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations.
It will help develop sustainable and responsible destinations with a tourist and destination centric approach.
It will encourage the development of benchmarks and standards for generic and theme-specific development of tourism destinations and the States will follow the benchmarks and standards while planning and developing the projects.
The following major themes have been identified for tourism under the Scheme:
- Culture and Heritage
- Adventure Tourism
- Eco-Tourism
- Wellness Tourism
- MICE Tourism
- Rural Tourism
- Beach Tourism
- Cruises – Ocean & Inland

Significance:

The revamped scheme seeks to enhance the contribution of tourism to local economies.
It aims to create jobs including self-employment for local communities, to enhance the skills of local youth in tourism and hospitality, to increase private sector investment in tourism and hospitality and to preserve and enhance local cultural and natural resources.

Swadesh Darshan Scheme

It was launched in 2014-15 for integrated development of theme-based tourist circuits — Buddhist Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Desert Circuit, Eco Circuit, Heritage Circuit, Northeast Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Sufi Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Ramayana Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Tirthankar Circuit, Wildlife Circuit and Tribal Circuit.
It is 100% centrally funded and efforts are made to achieve convergence with other schemes of Central and State Governments and also to leverage the voluntary funding available for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Central Public Sector Undertakings and Corporate Sector.