Emphasising the need to retain the human touch in the tourism sector in India, Ashwani Lohani, who heads the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) as its director, has said the human-to-human interaction is crucially important for promoting tourism in the country.
“There is too much of digital nowadays. Tourism is all about movement of human beings and human-to-human interaction. Let the human touch remain,” he said. Lohani was speaking at THE WEEK Heritage Awards 2026 on October 27 at the PMML in New Delhi.
With a reputation for being a turnaround specialist known to have revived the Fairy Queen steam locomotive and leading various organisations like the Railway Board and Air India, Lohani underlined the potential of “holistic experiences” for the tourist in India.
“Experience is what matters. You may have a brilliant tourist destination, but if the road to that place is bad, if cleanliness is not good, if the experience is not good, then that monument is useless.”
Lohani held out the example of the Bhimbetka historical site, barely 20km from Madhya Pradesh state capital Bhopal.
“The road was bad. No place where you could have a cup of tea. No place for toilets. No place where somebody could sit down. No interpretation boards. And this site, which is millions of years old—billions of years old—was totally unexplored. We provided all those basic things, promoted it back in the city of Bhopal, and people started going there in large numbers.”
“We need to facilitate the tourists who plan to travel and explore India. India, with all its diversity, is an extremely rich tourist destination. Indeed, for the roving tourist, it is one nation, many worlds.”
The PMML director also critiqued the closure of government tourist offices in India and abroad.
“I could not really understand or appreciate the rationale behind shutting down the Government of India tourist offices overseas and many state tourism offices within India. Such offices have played a substantial role in creating a desire to travel,” Lohani said.
“That may not result in numbers immediately, but they create a desire to travel. And then there are enough flights between India and the rest of the world—people will travel, incomes will rise.”
