There is a need to integrate tourism, technology and consumers: Mugdha Sinha

Jaipur: There is a need to integrate tourism, technology, and consumers and decide how to serve tourism to consumers using technology, said Mugdha Sinha, Secretary – Science & Technology, Government of Rajasthan.

She emphasized the need for innovation in our offerings to generate repeat tourism. Talking about entrepreneurship, she mentioned that it should include ideation and technology.

Ideation is important for ensuring first-mover advantage instead of repackaging existing products/services. She mentioned that tourism and technology both are intangible and need to continuously evolve to remain relevant for consumers.

She was speaking at the FICCI webinar on Transforming Tourism Through Startups held today.

Rajasthan has really captured the wedding market especially in north India with lucrative offers and this has helped the industry revive during the pandemic, said Ms Sabina Chopra, co-founder, Yatra Online Pvt Ltd.

Rajasthan has everything to offer in the field of tourism but we have to add new elements to leverage the rich cultural heritage of the state in a sustainable fashion.

Reimaging and redefining the experiences offers tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurship. We should be thinking that why should tourism come to the same place a third time, what new things he will find, and then build on those ideas for promoting startups.

While making the theme presentation on “Harnessing Entrepreneurship for Development of Tourism”, Chintan Bakshi, CEO, Startup Oasis said that tourism has been the worst-hit sector during the pandemic but this is the one sector that has seen a fair amount of startup activities.

To rejuvenate the sector, startups have to play a very clear role. There is a lot of work done by online aggregators for bringing in customers for services & products offered and the next wave of activity to take place in a more hyper-local environment especially by startups focusing on specific areas, niches, experiences.

He added that I would call them high-growth businesses rather than startups. They are already doing good work in experiential tourism but we need more & more such startups who could curate more experiences for tourists as there are already platforms available to market them and here government’s role in organizing series of accelerator programs to give a platform to such startups and explore their products.

Elaborating the role of weddings in reviving the tourism sector in Rajasthan post-covid, Sandeep Lodha, CEO, Weddingz.in shared that we have seen many small numbered independent weddings moving from NCR to Rajasthan during Covid as destination weddings.

To promote this further, we need to make Rajasthan more accessible and affordable so that more & more people choose to come to Rajasthan for weddings.

However, we have to market it well and also bring in govt support in terms of tax rebates along with ease of organizing the weddings at places like sand dunes, lakeside, etc with online permissions.

Randhir Vikram Singh, Co-Chairman, FICCI Rajasthan State Council & CMD, Mandawa Hotels delivered a welcome address during the program and shared that entrepreneurship and digital transformation are key allies in facing the challenges of the pandemic.

He mentioned that accelerating startups will improve processes and positively impact the sector’s value chain.

Surendra Singh Shahpura, Member, FICCI Rajasthan State Council & Chairman, Shahpura Hotels while summing-up the webinar highlighted the importance of introducing new elements in tour packages and itineraries in Rajasthan which will be the key drivers for the growth of tourism in the state.

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