About the Scheme

The Ministry of Tourism had launched Swadesh Darshan Scheme in 2015 and sanctioned 76 projects under the Scheme till date. The Ministry of Tourism carried out detailed review of the Scheme and identified the following areas for improvement:

  • Broad basing of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee
  • State level Institutional Structure for the Scheme
  • Strategic selection of the destinations
  • Detailed benchmarking and gap analysis of destination
  • Focus on both hard and soft Interventions
  • Strengthening of Project Implementation and Monitoring
  • Operations and maintenance on sustainable basis
  • Promotion & marketing of the destinations
  • Impact Assessment

Based on the detailed review, the Ministry has revamped the scheme. With the mantra of ‘vocal for local’, the revamped scheme namely Swadesh Darshan 2.0 seeks to attain “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” by realizing India’s full potential as tourism destination. Swadesh Darshan 2.0 is a generational shift to evolve Swadesh Darshan Scheme as a holistic mission to develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations covering tourism and allied infrastructure, tourism services, human capital development, destination management and promotion backed by policy and institutional reforms.

Vision

To develop sustainable and responsible tourism destinations in the country.

Mission

To create a robust framework for integrated development of tourism destinations in partnership with the States/ UTs and local governments for promoting sustainable and responsible tourism in the country.

Objectives

The strategic objectives of the Scheme are:

  • To enhance the contribution of tourism to the local economies
  • 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
  • To preserve and enhance the local cultural and natural resources
Key Principles

In order to achieve the vision of sustainable and responsible tourism and the key objectives of enhancing the contribution of tourism to local economy and local jobs, the following principles have been identified to be followed under the Scheme:

  • Develop benchmarks and standards for major tourism themes
  • Sustainable and responsible tourism
  • Destination and tourist centric approach
  • Integrated development of tourism destination
  • Focus on Domestic Tourism
  • Policy and Institutional Reforms
  • Operation and maintenance on sustainable basis
  • Synergy with other central and state schemes

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