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Mumbai's monuments can boost fort tourism

Standing tall and bearing the scars of innumerable battles, the remnants of forts in Mumbai are a testament to the valour of Maratha warriors in the centuries gone by. But most are in a dilapidated condition or have been renovated in a way that has robbed them of their original grandeur.

While this city is known as India's business and entertainment capital, Mumbai is not known outside for its forts. Historians and conservationists believe that if tended with proper care, these monuments can give a boost to "fort tourism".

Sharda Dwivedi, veteran historian, researcher and author of several books on the history and culture of Mumbai, is saddened by the lack of care for the forts. The city is home to at least 10 forts that, if developed, can be a major tourist attraction, she said.

"Bombay (Mumbai) has the second largest number of art deco buildings after Miami in the US. However, unlike Miami where an entire precinct was restored, making it an international tourist attraction, here we do little to preserve our heritage," Dwivedi said.

"Moreover some forts, instead of being restored to original glory have just been tampered with using concrete and cement. The state archaeological department has not even bothered to appoint a conservation architect to restore heritage forts," she said.

Castella de Aguada, also known as the Bandra Fort, located at the land's end in suburban Bandra was built by the Portuguese in 1640 as a watchtower overlooking the Mahim Bay to the south and the Arabian Sea to the west.

Under the supervision of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the fort is currently under renovation.

Not very far from the Bandra Fort, towards the south, is the imposing Mahim Fort. The fort is today literally buried under a pile of garbage.

Strategically located in the Mahim Bay, the fort overlooks Worli to the south, Bandra to the north and Mahim to the east. In a state of disrepair and threatened by encroachments and tidal erosion, the fort is one of the few that are right next to the sea.

"This fort is the best example of total neglect by the state. Where would you find a fort which is as strategically located in the middle of the city?" asks Abha Narain Lambah, a conservation architect.

"One has to literally wade through an awful lot of trash to reach the fort," she added.

The Riwa Fort, right in the middle of Dharavi, the biggest slum of Asia, also requires conservation. Also known as the Kala Qila or the black fort, it was built by Governor of Bombay Gerald Aungier in early 1670s.

In north Mumbai, the Madh Fort, also called the Versova Fort, is located in a secluded spot in Madh Island. It was built by the Portuguese as a watchtower in the 17th century.

Although its external facade is intact, inside it is in a bad shape. Surrounded by local fishermen communities, the fort has been a popular shooting spot for Bollywood movies like "Love Ke Liye Kuchh Bhi Karega" and "Mard".

Also built by Aungier is the Sion Hillock Fort, which is currently the office of the Mumbai circle of the ASI. Sion, in central Mumbai, was a boundary between British-held Parel Island and Portuguese-held Salsette Island, the fort was built between 1669 and 1677. The fort is dilapidated.

"Not a single fort today is in a stable condition. Forts like Riwa and Mahim are surrounded by encroachments," said Anita Rane-Kothare, head of the department of ancient Indian culture of St. Xavier's College.

"This is the situation a year after the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 2010 (Amendment and Validation) came into force January 2010," she added.

ASI's Superintending Archaeologist (Mumbai circle) M.S. Chauhan said while restoration is under way at most forts, removal of encroachment and other logistics will involve several other government agencies.

"But I do agree that once properly restored and cleaned up, the forts can definitely attract many more tourists and encourage 'fort tourism'," he said.

According to Rane-Kothare, the act strictly prohibits any construction within a 100-metre radius of the protected monument.

The Sewree Fort, the Sion Fort and the Worli Fort also badly need restoration.

Nearly seven lakh foreigners visited India in February

Nearly seven lakh foreign tourists visited India in February this year against 6.01 lakh visitors in the same period last year.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) during February this year was 6.92 lakh as compared to 6.01 lakh in February last year and 4.90 lakh in February 2009, according to the data prepared by Tourism Ministry.
There has been a growth of 15.1 per cent in FTAs in February 2011 over February 2010. FTAs registered a growth of 9.7 per cent in January.
The 15.1 per cent growth rate in February was substantially higher than 9.7 per cent growth rate observed in January, a senior Tourism Ministry official said.
There were total 12.30 lakh foreign tourists during January-February 2011 with a growth of 12.7 per cent, as compared to 10.92 lakh with a growth of 12.4 per cent during January-February 2010 over the corresponding period of 2009.
Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE) from tourism also registered a growth in February, as India earned Rs 7,653 crore as against Rs 6,646 crore in February 2010 and Rs 4,547 crore in February 2009.
FEE from tourism during January-February 2011 was Rs 13,430 crore, registering a growth of 9.7 per cent as compared to the FEE of Rs 12,239 crore for the same period last year.
PTI ARU

Goa, Rajasthan hit wedding destinations for US tourists

Goa and Rajasthan are high on the list of preferred wedding destinations in India for urban tourists from the United States, a top tourism official here said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after his return from a promotional tour to the US, Goa tourism director Swapnil Naik said the US traveller is drawn to India because of its rich history and cultural heritage, apart from its nature, wildlife, hinterland and adventure tourism.

Naik said that with Goa's sustained popularity with European tourists, mainly from Britain, Russia and Scandinavian countries, targeting US tourists would help in broadening the state's tourist base.

Sanjay Srivastava, Goa's chief secretary who accompanied Naik on the promotional tour, said that the US tourism trade fraternity had evinced keen interest in the possibility of promoting Goa as a wedding destination.

He added that the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) has invited the Goa government to participate in its annual convention and trade show at Las Vegas in Nevada in mid-June.

The Goan delegation's promotional tour in association with Atlanta-based AAHOA covered western American cities like Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

"This is a start we have made by trying to tap the US market. The last time we had gone there was in 2007. But this time we plan to build on these initial contacts we have made," Srivastava said.

Goa is already a sought after beach wedding destination. Only last month, celebrity couple Lara Dutta, a former Miss Universe, and tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathy got married in elaborate style at a five-star resort in north Goa.

Asia travel: Five trends to watch

Political transformation, medical tourism, high-speed rail, cheap airfares and a boom in cruising are among the hot topics in Asia travel.

By Andrew Bender Special to the Los Angeles Times

March 6, 2011

Geopolitics. Rhinoplasty. Who knew those would be among the hottest topics in Asia for 2011? It was news to me, and I've been going back and forth to Asia for a quarter-century, with trips to Japan and China last year alone. To see what the Asia traveler might have in store, I spoke with academics, policy people and regular travelers. Here's what they told me:

Political changes

Could there be an Asian contagion from recent unrest in the Arab world? Lowell Dittmer, a professor of political science at UC Berkeley, thinks it's unlikely. He distinguishes largely Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the like. "Both Malaysia and Indonesia are relatively stable democracies and have been seen as models for the future of post-revolutionary Islamic societies of North Africa and the Middle East," he says.

The freeing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar and other political developments are likely to increase tourism there. "There was effectively a tourism boycott," says Robert Reid, the U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet, because of Suu Kyi's on-again-off-again house arrest for the last 20 years. After Suu Kyi's release in November, her political party, the National League for Democracy, began encouraging individual travelers to return to Myanmar. The National League still frowns on package tours, says Reid, which it perceives as cooperating with — and thereby helping fund — the military government.

North Korean attacks on a South Korean warship and island made headlines last year, but "for visitors to South Korea, it's not a great concern," says Sue Terry, fellow and Korea specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "This has been going on for decades." North Korea provokes South Korea when there's a leadership succession in that isolated nation, Terry says. (Leader Kim Jong Il appears to have made his son, Kim Jong Un, the successor[). "North Korea very well knows not to escalate to the degree that there will be war," Terry says. "The moment that happens, it will be over for them."

For current travel warnings, alerts and country profiles, visit the U.S. State Department's website, http://www.travel.state.gov.

Medical tourism

Americans fretting about rising medical costs at home are among those creating a boom in Asian medical tourism. Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and India are leading the way in checkups, fertility treatments, joint replacements and cosmetic surgery by professionals, many trained stateside, at a fraction of the cost in the U.S.

Costs for Americans can be as much as 70% less than in the U.S., says Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in Washington, D.C. He estimates that 140,000 travelers went to Thailand alone in 2009 for medical procedures. American medical tourists go for "short-stay surgical procedures where people don't perceive much risk," such as breast augmentation, gum surgery and nose jobs, he says. "You're probably not going over for a lung transplant."

In techie Korea, there's a smart phone app for that (MediApp Korea) in four languages, including English, and a Medical Tourism Information Center at Seoul's Incheon International Airport directs visitors to clinics for plastic surgery, dentistry, fertility, Oriental medicine and more. Treatments in India span Western medicine and ayurvedic massage and yoga, and Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital has an international reputation for arthroscopy, tattoo removal and other specialties. Bangkok is even known as a center for gender reassignment surgery.

Keckley cautions those considering such a trip that it's a buyer-beware market. The risk is not so much in the procedure, he says, but in the potential for complications after travelers return home. Some Asian practitioners are enhancing pre- and post-care by using such tools as electronic record keeping.

High-speed rail

While the U.S. has been debating high-speed rail, China has been building it at warp speed.

China's first high-speed line connected Beijing with Tianjin in 2008, and four more lines have opened since. Anticipation is high for a sixth line, which is to connect Beijing with Shanghai in June. It's expected to run the 819-mile route in about four hours, at speeds up to 236 mph. Tickets are projected to cost about $103 versus $190 for a coach-class flight of two hours.

Japan created the world's first permanent high-speed rail system in 1964, and the network continues to expand. On Saturday, the new Shinkansen (bullet trains) on the southern island of Kyushu will extend the journey from the current terminus, Hakata (in Fukuoka), to the new southern terminus in Kagoshima, making the trip in 78 minutes. Along the way, Kyushu's other big city, Kumamoto, will be a 33-minute day trip (or new commuting option) from busy Fukuoka.

Cheaper airfares

A la EasyJet and Ryanair in Europe, frills-free, low-cost carriers are bringing air travel to the masses across Asia.

Singapore's Tiger Airways, Malaysia's Air Asia, Thailand's Nok Airlines, Indian carriers JetLite, SpiceJet and GoAir, and Australian-based JetStar Asia Airways are among the ones to watch. Fares tend to be lower the earlier you book, though taxes, fees, checked baggage and meals can add up. Also be alert for the impact of rising fuel prices on fares.

Singapore is a low-airfare hub. A recent search of Tiger Airways found a round-trip ticket between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur of $37, though checking a 55-pound suitcase would cost you $27.50 more. The same round trip on Singapore Airlines: $223. A similar search on JetStar Asia Airways yielded a double-take-inducing one-way $1.56 fare to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur, though taxes and fees increased that to $23.50.

Random searches for the two-hour flight between Delhi and Mumbai in India yielded round-trip fares of about $144 on SpiceJet and $194 on JetLite, versus $223 on JetLite's full-fare parent company, Jet Airways. Buy-on-board food included north and south Indian-style vegetarian meals.

Lower fare options are cropping up even in traditionally pricey Japan. Fares on Skynet Asia Airways, Skymark Airlines and AirDo average 20% less than on legacy carriers Japan Airlines and ANA, with occasionally steeper discounts. A recent search found one-way fares for the 95-minute flight from Tokyo to Sapporo for about $430 on ANA and JAL, $238 on Skymark and as low as $202 on AirDo.

Travelers to Japan from overseas can save even more with "Visit Japan" fares on JAL, ANA and Skynet Asia Airways, about $126 for a domestic flight when combined with a round-trip ticket to Japan.

Cruise news

"The global cruise industry is now looking toward Asia as a major growth engine," says Lanie Fagan, director of communications for Florida-based Cruise Lines International Assn. The association sees Southeast Asia as one of 2011's hot destinations. About 2 million cruise passengers passed through Hong Kong in 2010, and a record-breaking 1.14 million in Singapore, which is building an almost seven-acre deepwater cruise terminal expected to be completed by late 2012.

By 2015, the Asia Cruise Terminal Assn. is projecting about 7 million annual cruise passengers in Asia, thanks to a growing Asian middle class. Another sign of the times: Atlantis Events, which charters ships for gay cruises, offered its first Asia cruise in 2009 and doubled that in 2010.

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

Centre to promote state's Sufi circuits

The Union tourism ministry has decided to promote sites connected to Sufi circuit in Bihar. Union minister for tourism Subodh Kant Sahay on Wednesday announced that the Centre would provide funds to develop the Sufi circuits in Bihar.

"Buddhist circuits have been well developed here. They are drawing ever growing number of tourists. similarly, the Sufi circuits will be developed in the same pattern," he said, adding that the Sufi sites at Biharsharif, Manersharif, Munger, Phulwarisharif and several other spots will boost the state's economy.

Sahay said this while inaugurating the new Patna office of Indian tourism here.

"Bihar lacks basic infrastructure in attracting more tourists. The flow of tourists to Bihar has increased manifold. Soon after arrival, tourists start thinking about their return. This is because of lack of proper communication linkage and infrastructure," he said.

Pointing out that the state government has failed to develop adequate infrastructure, Sahay said: "The state government should work to promote tourism which will generate more employment than any other industry. An investment of Rs 10 lakh produces 89 jobs in tourism but the same investment in any other sector will generate only a few jobs," Sahay said.

He said the Bihar government was not serious in pursuing several central projects. "Lack of seriousness and interests impairs several such projects," he said.

"There are only two to three good hotels in Bihar. There is an urgent need to construct more and more hotels in the state," Sahay added.

The new tourism building has been constructed to facilitate the promotion of tourism in Bihar. The Union tourism ministry has plans to prepare projects in the next financial year to further develop the building. Assistant director general India tourism Sanjay Shreevats elaborated on the promotion of tourism in Bihar.

Panchkula to have tallest Jain idol in world

Panchkula will soon be on the world Jain tourism map with the world's tallest idol of the 23rd Tirthankar Bhagwan Parshvanath being installed at a new temple in Sector 18. The 7.3 feet tall idol will be erected by the middle of this month.

''The idol is unique as it has water oozing out of 1,008 hoods of cobras,'' said Upadhyayshri Guptisagar, one of most revered scholars and saints of Digambar Jains in the world, while talking to TOI during an interview here on Thursday.

Guptisagar revealed that the artisans took six months to make the idol and were paid more than they expected but he did not reveal the amount. The saint is himself stationed at Digambar Jain temple in Sector 27 to oversee the arrangements.

''The statue is made of black marble from Makrana in Rajasthan. The final trials of water flow from the mouths of all cobras are going to be undertaken next week,'' he said, adding that the throne of the idol has intricate artistic work.

Guptisagar said the Tirthankar Parshvanath finds reference in Vedas also for turning adversities into opportunities and bliss, the elevated human with a Midas touch. ''This part of India does not have a single Parshwanath temple,'' he said.

Guptisagar, who does not wear clothes according to a level of sainthood attained in the Digambar Jain order, will walk down from Madhya Pradesh to install and consecrate the idol between March 11 and 16 at Panchkula. The saint has 30 publications to his credit and is pioneer of a Jain school that concentrates efforts on public welfare. He does not sleep even for three hours a day.

He explained that Jains are one of the highest per capita income and wealth-holding communities in India and their saints live the toughest life amongst all religious people of the world. Digambar Jain saints don't possess even a single piece of cloth or utensil. They eat and drink only once in a day holding food and drink in the hollow of their palms, he said.

Le Cafe launch to herald heritage effort in Pondy

A French organization, Vieilles Maisons Francaises (VMF), specialising in preserving French heritage mansions across the globe, will launch its Indian chapter French Heritage in India in Puducherry, a former French enclave.

Established in 1958 in France, VMF is presently the largest French heritage society with 20,000 members and 95 regional offices. The society, which strives hard to protect and preserve French architectural heritage, supports important heritage restoration projects with special awards. In the last 30 years, it has awarded 1,400 prizes extending 4.8 million Euros as prize money. It suggests guidelines to government and non-governmental organizations and individuals for protection of architectural heritage.

The new chapter with its base in Puducherry will work towards protecting existing French heritage structures all over the country. To start with, it will make an inventory of important heritage buildings in the country and involve a team of experts in respective regions, who will help in preserving the unique heritage structures.

VMF president Philippe Toussaint will formally launch the chapter in a function on March 4 at Le Cafe on the Beach Road. To mark the occasion, the society has also announced two special awards for the tourism department and a hotel giant for restoring heritage buildings Le Caf' on the Beach Road and Hotel Maison Perumal - to their past glory. Both the buildings are more than 150 years old.

The building which presently houses Le Cafe, a cafeteria run by the tourism department, is one of the distinctive French architectural structures in Puducherry while the other building, which is converted into a heritage hotel, is a typical Tamil architectural structure. Le Caf' was the old port office while the other structure housed the taluk office. Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) helped the government and the hotel giant in the restoration of the buildings.

"The launch of Indian chapter of the French organization here will give the much-required impetus for protection and preservation of priceless heritage structures here," INTACH co-convenor Ashok Panda told The Times of India.

He was of the strong opinion that the presence of the French society in Puducherry will enlighten all sections of people about heritage monuments. "The chapter will undertake a series of programmes to sensitize the public, particularly the students, on heritage preservation. It will also train professionals in India on heritage conservation besides helping the local artisans in improving their skills and marketing their products," he said.

The VMF has also taken up environmental issues and has initiated a campaign against theft and sale of antiques.