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MUMBAI, 7 SEPTEMBER, 2024 (GPN): The Voting for ‘Dekho Apna Desh, People’s Choice 2024’ will remain open until 15 September 2024. The initiative launched by PM Modi aims to engage with citizens to identify most preferred tourist attractions and understand tourist perceptions across 5 tourism categories – Spiritual, Cultural & Heritage, Nature & Wildlife, Adventure and others. Besides the four main categories, the ‘other’ category is where one can vote for their personal favorites and help uncover hidden tourism gems in the form of unexplored tourism attractions and destinations like Vibrant Border Villages, Wellness Tourism, Wedding Tourism etc.The Voting can be done thru a dedicated portal https://innovateindia.mygov.in/dekho-apna-desh/.

Through the initiative, the Ministry of Tourism, GoI seeks to promote the preservation of cultural landmarks and traditions, ensuring their longevity for future generations. This will also allow the Ministry to understand lesser-known tourist locations that people would like to visit apart from the better known popular attractions.

With the launch of this initiative, the Ministry intends to support India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat@2047 by identifying winning attractions and destinations for development as a mission, in the short and medium term, through a ‘Whole of Government’ approach.

Talking to GPN, about the latest development in Maharashtra Tourism MTDC General Manager Chandrashekhar Jaiswal said, “MTDC has reduced carbon emissions at its resort in Ganpatipule with steps like the use of natural products and zero waste management.Taste enhancers, preservatives and artificial flavouring have been prohibited and they have been replaced with natural products in the resorts. The policy of no flex use and banning plastic bottles have also been implemented in the resorts.”

“The carbon footprint in the Ganpatipule resort has come down to 0.858 kg CO2 per traveller per day now from 2.057 two years back. We have made an online form and collected data (of activities at the resort) from nearly 450 guests till date,” Jaiswal said.

The carbon footprint calculation system has been installed at the MTDC resorts in Ganpatipule and Tarkarli.

“Responsible tourism’ is an endeavour to create awareness among guests for environment conservation and an effort to use local produce. We are making our visitors understand carbon literacy. Initiatives like no use of artificial colours and community-based tourism are making a positive impact, state tourism secretary Jayashree Bhoj said.

MTDC Managing Director B N Patil said their carbon calculator programme through responsible tourism practices has been implemented in Ganpatipule and Tarkarli as a pilot project.

“We will implement it in our other resorts across the state in the next six months,” he added.