Amitava Bhattacharya is an ecstatic man.
Post his return from Berlin, he cannot help but share the fact that UNWTO has
recognised Banglanatak dot com’s model Art for Life and has signed a
partnership agreement at the recently held ITB Berlin, for which Bhattacharya
was personally invited. Apart from the partnership, Bhattacharya was also
invited to deliver the keynote address at UNWTO conference on Community
Empowerment.
Speaking about the partnership with UNWTO, Amitava says, “The Art for Life model touches on safeguarding cultural heritage, helps communities to strengthen livelihoods from the same, develops pride and earns recognition from local, National and International communities. So, art villages evolve as cultural destinations and this increases the community’s involvement in tourism, adds to the socio economic parameters of the communities, evolves Responsible Ethical Tourism and aids in overall inclusive development.”
According to Bhattacharya, what was once a ‘beggars’ village’ in Bengal in 2004, has now been converted to ‘Artists’ village’, at Naya, Pingla. It is the Patachitra artists village, which at least 30,000 people visit throughout the year. In Nadia, the Baul Fakirs villages have evolved as destinations. After hosting the festival for 5 years, Banglanatak dot com decided not to do it anymore as the infrastructure was good enough for the Baul Fakirs to host the festival on their own. Similarly, in Madhubani, 300 women have formed social enterprises on Madhubani painting and handle the same.
Commenting on the importance of the partnership with UNWTO, Bhattacharya says, “With UNWTO recognising this model, it should be easier for us to push to the planners, the need to develop cultural tourism to achieve inclusive development and offer a unique cultural experience to the visitors. After all, 1 .1 billion people travelled in 2014 and 40% travelled to see culture. Goa may like to add its traditional villages to the tourism map and thus focus on some investment in their cultural villages and on cultural products. This is important. For example, Visitors to Goa may like to see Betul, Old Goa, Ponda, Pernem, etc.”