Chandigarh: The Himachal Pradesh government is working on a 20-year master plan for the promotion of tourism in the hill state. The objective of the Tourism Master Plan is to attract high-end tourists, especially foreign tourists. The Department of Tourism is of the view that “emphasis on mass tourism had put huge pressure on the natural resources and infrastructure”. On the other hand, attracting “class tourists” or high-end tourists would help the state earn more without having any adverse effect on its limited infrastructure.

Another aim of the proposed Master Plan for Tourism is to develop sustainable and environment-friendly tourism in the state to de-congest the present tourist destinations and divert the tourism traffic to new places. A special focus is being made for community development and also to increase the employment opportunities.

It was only recently that Manisha Nanda, secretary, tourism, had called a meeting of the directorate of tourism and civil aviation attended by officials from the departments of environment, Pollution Control Board, Public Works, Public Health and Town and Country Planning, among others. Nanda told the officials that the “Master Plan for a hill state like Himachal should focus on eco-tourism, rural and cultural tourism, heritage tourism and adventure tourism to make the state attractive during every seasons or to make it an all-season state.”

The tourism department was looking for another model to attract the young, enthusiastic public school students to explore the state and to remain in close contact with the nature, culture, tradition and food habits of rural Himachal.

“The department would create a synergy with the hill state and the prominent educational institutions, within and outside the country, especially public schools and prepare an attractive package for school children so that whatever they had been reading in books, other publicity literature and watching in the video films was personally visited”.