Volume : 2 | Issue : 7 | July 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Research Paper
Heritage Walks Providers and their
Marketing Strategy: A case study of Delhi
Dr. Arvind Kumar Assistant Professor and Programme Coordinator BTS, BHM, MHA, EMBAHM,
Dubey MIHM, NCHMCT programmes & MCC.
ABSTRACT Heritage walk is not just an activity but a very important tool for creation of understanding related to
changing cultural landscapes and the past. The role of heritage walk provider/heritage interpreter/ guide is
very crucial in creating heritage and cultural understanding. They not only interpret the heritage but also engage the tourist in cul-
tural activity so that understanding of that region is profound. In Delhi, there are a number of heritage walk providers with numerous
products, clientele and marketing strategies.
The present paper examines a few dimensions related to the heritage walk providers of Delhi namely, their products, clientele, market-
ing strategies etc.
Introduction:
Heritage is a valuable resource of society. Ways and means of
recreating heritage and showcasing it to tourists is a major
concern of the heritage industry. Tourism focuses itself on this
aspect and it is observed that Travel Agencies, Tour Operators,
NGOs, Government Organizations, Associations and individuals
who provide heritage walks on regular basis or occasionally are
engaged in enriching this component of the Tourism Industry.
At Delhi there are certain NGOs and associations who provide
heritage walks on regular basis. Some Travel Agency/ Tour
Operators cater to customer (tourist) demand and arrange for
such walks as and when there is demand. Some Government
and private organizations conduct heritage walk occasionally
and on specific dates.
Objectives
The main objectives of the study are as follows:
To find the type of heritage walk providers at Delhi.
To analyze the planning and marketing strategy of heritage
walk providers
To understand the role and significance of walk providers,
business and their products.
Methodology
In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, secondary data
pertaining to travel agency business has been collected from
various books, guide books, pamphlets, brochure and website.
A research questionnaire related to heritage walk providers was
prepared. The data were collected through personal interaction
and filling up the questionnaire by the tour operators, NGOs, ho-
tels etc. Some responses were also obtained via email.
Planning of Heritage Walks
Heritage walk is an important activity to create awareness
among people (owner of heritage /culture) about historicity of
areas and related cultural values. Through heritage walk, inti-
macy and association with available historic settlements, and
environment can be developed. It motivates tourists, and local
population to visit rich cultural/ archaeological/architectural
sites which may not be linked with offered itinerary. These
experiences have the capacity to sensitize local populations
towards the historical and cultural values of resources. It also
encourages populations to preserve and conserve their own
culture and heritage. Through this, a sense of pride is inculcated
and people start appreciating available heritage and culture.
Heritage walk is the best medium to initiate community based
efforts for conservation and preservation involving volunteers,
citizens, political leaders, media and other organizations.
In Delhi, heritage walk providers are offering basically two
types of walk i.e. Regular walk and Customized walk. Regular
walks are conducted either on daily basis or on weekends. In
regular walk the area of walk, its itinerary, type of activity, start-
ing and ending point, meeting place and cost are fixed and com-
municated to walkers in advance. This kind of walk is done in
512 IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Tourism
KEYWORDS : Heritage Walk,
Marketing, Strategy, Providers
groups and the costs involved are nominal.
Both Indian and foreign nationals who are living in and around
Delhi or visiting Delhi come for the walks on weekends. On
weekdays, heritage walks for individuals, customized and pri-
vate tours for Embassies, Corporate Houses, Travel and Tour
Operator Companies, Public Sector Undertakings, Hotels etc
are organized. In some cases groups are also escorted to places
around Delhi like Jaipur, Agra, Shekhawati etc. Spiritual tours,
religious tours and eco-trails to Doon Valley, Mathura, Vrinda-
van, Haridwar, Rishikesh etc., are also designed.
Customized walk is organized as per demand of tourist/walker.
Here the heritage walker has freedom to choose the area to be
explored, day and period of visit, time of visit, type of activity
undertaken and the starting and ending point of the tour. It de-
pends on the interest and motivation of the walker. These kinds
of walks are conducted on the basis of special requests received
by the tour operators. Prior information or advance registration
may be online indicating the day; area of interest etc is required.
Accordingly, heritage walk providers will prepare an itinerary
and separate fee for the heritage walk will be worked out. Its
cost is much higher than that of Regular walks.
In planning of heritage walk, street, type of monument, locality,
approach, starting and ending point, route, population willing-
ness and behavior, type of vegetation, historical significance and
continuation, architectural value, personality association and
area selection are very important.
The itinerary, area and above mentioned aspects are researched
by conducting detailed survey and by visiting associated areas.
After this appropriate site, route, monument, locality, starting/
ending point and area is selected, a comfortable route is de-
cided. As per the route identified, detailed and minute script is
finalized including monumental/cultural/social details, special
features of the area, environment/ vegetation / fauna character-
istics, architectural value and description of associated person-
alities. A script is prepared which may be modified from time
to time as per market demands. Marketing is a key to success
of such walks. Given hereunder, is a list of marketing strategies
used by the heritage walk providers of Delhi.
Marketing strategy of heritage walk providers at Delhi
- Direct sale to travel agency, tour operators, hotels, Embas-
sies etc.
- Direct sale to Corporate Sectors, School and College.
- By word of mouths
- Through online booking and website
- Through advertisement in paper, magazine, journals, cable
network, TV, Cinema halls etc.
- Linkage and collaboration with Travel Agency/ Tour Opera-
tors and Hotels.
- Publication of pamphlets, handouts, display, brochure.
- By printing T-Shirts etc
Research Paper
- Collaboration of Entertainment channel and NGOs
- Organizing lectures of prominent personalities like art and
architectural experts, historians, scientists, environmental-
ists etc.
- Creation of blog etc.
In modern day website and emails are the best and cheapest
way of marketing. Through this, like minded people are in touch
with each other. The information of walk area, duration, date,
time, cost, meeting point, do and donts, brief description, walk
leader/guide, booking number/address/contact number, dis-
tance of walk, who can come, how to come, what to carry and
wear, map of walk route etc are pasted.
The Marketing strategies ensure that practical tips are provided
to aspiring heritage walkers. A few such tips are listed below:
- Wear comfortable shoes/ clothes and Ensure for sun pro-
tection
- Take required medicines (special) and Keep your camera
slung around neck or in bag
- Take small hand bag and Sunglass on face or in bag
- Scarf for covering head (religious places) and During com-
muting hold your belongings tightly
- No passport at the time of visit and keep your Valuables at
Hotel
- Take care of your wallet and Photography by permission.
Heritage Walks Providers
Delhis heritage entity is a living heritage which should be con-
textualized within the surrounding living environment in which
heritage/culture is situated. Heritage walk is not just an activity
but a very important tool for creation of understanding related
to changing cultural landscapes and the past. The role of her-
itage walk provider/heritage interpreter/ guide is very crucial
in creating heritage and cultural understanding. They not only
interpret the heritage but also engage the tourist in cultural ac-
tivity so that understanding of that region is profound.
In Delhi, there are a number of heritage walk providers with
numerous products, clientele and marketing strategies. One
of them is Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Herit-
age (INTACH). The INTACH is a Non Governmental Organiza-
tion (NGO) established in the year 1984. The INTACHs Delhi
chapter is involved in a variety of programmes and activities
in the direction of heritage awareness and conservation. Since
2005, in association with Delhi Tourism and Transportation
Development Corporation (DTTDC), Municipal Corporation of
Delhi (MCD), Heritage society and Delhi Development Author-
ity (DDA), INTACH Delhi chapter is conducting regular and cus-
tomized heritage walks in various regions of Delhi. These walks
are conducted on every weekend. During walks, Interpretation
is done by knowledgeable and experienced walk guides. Before
start of walk, illustrated information and material containing
historical/relevant facts about monuments, culture, Flora and
Fauna (if applicable) of that region/ area, and a route map etc
are given to visitors.
Delhi Heritage Walks is an association of people from Delhi
and neighboring areas. This group is very much interested in
the creation of awareness about heritage and culture of Delhi
through Heritage walks. They conduct Regular as well as Cus-
tomized walks. India Habitat Centre also organizes heritage
walks of Delhi for distinguished guests. But it is not a regular
feature. Sometime heritage walk is conducted in collaboration
with INTACH. Wander Globe and Yar Khan Travel Agency also
conducts Heritage Walks of Delhi.
In Delhi there are a few individual specialized heritage walk
providers like Navina Jafa, Surekha Narayan, Sanjeev Chatur-
vedi, Manjit Singh, Saket, Sujit Kumar etc.
Missions 3G and Delhi based Heritage walks in collaboration are
organizing heritage walks of lesser known areas of Delhi and its
surroundings. Similarly Fox History and Entertainment Channel
in collaboration with INTACH have initiated a project called My
city My History. They are creating heritage awareness among
Volume : 2 | Issue : 7 | July 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179
school children.
Communicators Cooperative (group of people) organizes Bas-
ant Utsav for 4 days at Mehrauli and Archaeological Park. The
medium is Basant Prabhat Pheri and Sair-e-Virasat, The Her-
itage Walk. Similarly Delhi Urban Adventures is a team who are
conducting walks of spice market, Candani Chowk, citys monu-
ments and temples (Hanuman Mandir). They are specialized in
conducting heritage walks of sleepier side of Delhis street life.
A group of friends has created a blog called Klodb. blogspot.
com for conducting walks of Delhi. Salaam Baalak Trust City
walk is for Paharganj and New Delhi Railway station. The walk
leader is a street child who was once working and living on the
same street. Similarly, Hope Project (Shan-E-Nizam) is spe-
cialized in conducting heritage walks of Hazarat Nizamuddin
Aulias Dargah and adjoining areas.
Heritage Walk Providers Business
A research questionnaire related to heritage walk providers was
prepared. The questionnaire was filled up on personal visits to
travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, NGOs, and individual in-
terviews. It was also sent by email to some walk providers. The
summary / conclusions are as per follows.
- The present status of the business of heritage walks is good.
There are only a few players in the market who are special-
ized in providing heritage walks and since there is not much
competition the business is quite good with fairly good fu-
ture prospects.
- In spite of availability of lots of exotic culture, food, cuisine
and historical monuments and sites, only a few groups per
month are willing to go for heritage walk. It implies that the
business of heritage walk is at infancy stage.
- Heritage walk is a specialized tour. It requires willingness,
time and disposable income. The study shows that middle
budget and up budget tourists are more inclined towards
heritage walk.
- Maximum walk providers are deciding area of heritage
walk on theme basis. After that, area of walk is decided by
considering all aspects like historical continuity, randomly
and thematically.
- All the walk providers are taking feed back from the tourist
and using the same to improve the business. This is a good
sign for further development of the industry.
- Heritage walk providers are not employing guide on perma-
nent basis. They function with employing persons on tem-
porary basis. This may be responsible for non availability of
specialized heritage walk guides. In heritage walk, guides
are responsible for interpretation of heritage and culture
and this interpretation is the base of heritage walk which
decides the satisfaction level and future of heritage walk.
This is an area of great concern.
- The study shows that heritage walk providers are getting
maximum number of business due to linkage with travel
agency / tour operators and hotels. Another mode of mar-
keting is publicity by word of mouth. Some providers are us-
ing websites and printed brochure as medium of marketing.
A few walk providers are marketing the same by advertise-
ment and by direct sale to corporate houses and embassies.
Conclusion
Day by day importance of heritage walk is increasing and with
modern communication facility tourists are able to get all types
of information related to heritage and culture. These factors
have led to an increasing demand for heritage walk. This trend
is motivating the rise of some more Travel Agency / Tour Opera-
tors and individual escorts or guides who are specialized in pro-
viding heritage walk. But these organization / individual do not
have regular heritage walk feature but if targeted group (tour-
ist) demand heritage walk, they came to forefront. In most of
the cases some Travel Agency / Tour Operators are contacting
either INTACH or guides for executing such type of walks. The
study has indicated the need to promote the heritage walk in-
dustry and work out strategies for streamlining the approaches
so as to make it a profitable and meaningful business.
IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 513
Volume : 2 | Issue : 7 | July 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Research Paper

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