‘Promote city’s rich culture & cuisine to make travellers’ experience authentic’

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, which is number two in ‘ease of doing business’ can also become number 1 in the ‘ease of connecting with people’, said Vinod Pandey, general manager, hotel Taj Mahal, Lucknow.
He was speaking at a session on ‘Can hospitality become a revenue magnate for UP?’ at the ‘Destination Uttar Pradesh conclave’ organized by The Times group on Monday.
Insisting that Lucknow is truly a transformed city, he said, “This year, we had more weddings than those held in 2019 despite Covid protocols and restricted entry in our hotel. I think what worked for us as a hospitality industry was three R’s – Re-structure, Re-engineering and Re-imagining.” Sarvesh Goel, founder of The Centrum, a lifestyle venture, said, a traveller’s experience of the city of nawabs can be made more authentic by offering local culture, products and cuisine.
“We are different in a way that we boycotted foreign products and promoted indigenous ones. I feel hospitality can definitely be a revenue generator provided we reinvent ourselves because the experience of a traveller is very important,” Goel said.
He shared how the use of modern products including elements of heritage led to an out-of-box rejuvenating point for people of Lucknow, UP and India. “We revived two factories for Chinhat pottery giving employment to 22 artisans. A traveller needs to be offered something different as they carry memories and culture with them,” he said.
Culinary expert Pankaj Bhadouria said it is a huge responsibility of the hospitality industry to ensure that local cuisines make a traveller’s experience memorable.
“When one talks of local cuisine, it is only about kebabs and biryanis. There is a lot of local vegetarian cuisine such as ghugni matar, saag mixed with daal, or nimona that needs to be promoted because 70% of the travellers are vegetarian. We never popularise Bundelkhandi food or Braj ka khaana. If we do, we will definitely make the experience better for those coming here.”