Visakhapatnam :
Did you know that the dargah in the Old Town area was built by Islamic traders in 1287 and that the Queen Mary School was the only school for widows in 1932? The Kurupam market was constructed in honour of Edward VII and the current Visakha Museum was once a Dutch bungalow, used for storing indigo?
The answer from most Vizagites would be a big ‘No’, as the members of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) learnt much to their dismay when these questions were posed to a group of 75 students and 15 teachers from the city.
With awareness about the geological, historical and archaeological importance of natural as well as man-made heritage sites being pretty limited even among citizens along with a total lack of trained guides at Visakhapatnam, which is a major tourist hub attracting over 50 lakh foreign and domestic tourists annually, Intach had joined hands with the district tourism department to bring together, for the first time, a motley bunch of Navymen, tribals, MBAs, tour enthusiasts, scholars and school students and train them as freelance tourist guides.
As part of this unique initiative, 21 freelance tourist guides from different walks of life and culture have been trained by historians, archaeologists and Intach members with funds from district rural development agency (DRDA) and support from Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC). They are now set to take tourists on an interesting historical journey and help them explore tourist spots in and around the city. The trained and educated guides will be formally unveiled on World Tourism Day on September 27.
“These freelance guides volunteered to be trained in a 10-day programme supported by APTDC and Rs 3.16 lakh funding by DRDA. While Intach members trained the guides with maps, archaeology certified notes etc, we provided the contact numbers of the guides to hotels and tour operators and put up their details on website for travel enthusiasts to contact them,” said district tourism officer S D Anita.
Elaborating on the concept, Intach member and trainer Jayshree Hatangadi said, “This bunch of 21 travel and tourism enthusiasts belong to different professions but came forward to volunteer as freelance guides. They were given classes by historians, Vedic lecturers, archaeologists, heritage and environment experts as well as professionals from the hospitality industry, who taught them about tourist psychology and expectations. These guides are not only proficient in English, Hindi and Telugu but are also tech-savvy.”
The freelance guides include student Olivia Joshi, retired Naval officer John Daryl, lawyer G Rajkumar, insurance agent Y Parthasarathy, software professional G Arun Kumar, accountant Syed Majid, medical transcriptionist Sai Ram; MBA, finance and marketing persons such as Md Ishaq, A Ram, Rajesh B, P Muralikanth; those in the transport and tourism industry such as P Venugopal, Pawan Kumar, SS Srinu, Aparna, N Vamsi Krishna, tribal volunteer from Araku S Anand and four villagers Ch Laxman, B Ramesh, U Pawan and I Rambabu for village tourism and tribal tours.
“It’s the love for Vizag and passion for travelling that brought us together to get ourselves trained as guides,” quipped Neville-ul-Islam, a post graduate from the city who hails from a Naval background.
Describing the itinerary, P Venugopal said, “It includes a tour of the beaches, Visakha Museum, Simhachalam, Kailasagiri, Rushikonda, Bheemunipatnam, prominent Buddhist sites, Araku, Ananthgiri, Borra caves, waterfalls, Tyda rail station, coffee plantations and villages on the way to Araku.”
“Those interested can also visit the dingy Old Town area of Vizag and get a glimpse of the places steeped in history even though they are in an extremely dilapidated state. Provisions have also been made to enable tourists to savour local cuisines and shop for traditional crafts and artifacts from government stores,” Venugopal added.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Visakhapatnam / by Sulogna Mehta, TNN / September 18th, 2013