World Heritage Week celebrated by MLCU

A three- day international webinar on ‘Cultural Heritage: A Way Forward’ was organised by the Department of Tourism and Travel Management, Martin Luther Christian University to celebrate World Heritage Week.
The webinar which concluded on November 25 was dedicated to the rich cultural heritage of Meghalaya. Presentations on subjects like the problems in identifying cultural heritage, the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage, as well as the significance of a UNESCO recognition in mobilising cultural heritage sites as tourist destinations were made by resource persons.
The inaugural session of the webinar which was held on November 19 was attended by Tourism Director, Cyril VD Diengdoh who emphasised on the need to take steps to preserve as well as disseminate knowledge about the rich natural and cultural heritage of the State by using its rich oral tradition.
Diengdoh also spoke about the various steps that the Tourism department has taken to protect and preserve sites of cultural significance in a sustainable manner.
Prof. Manjula Chaudhary, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management Kurukshetra University, in her keynote address, spoke broadly about heritage tourism at fragile destinations.
Prof Chaudhary presented the important points of heritage tourism such as the prevention of the erosion of the authenticity at heritage tourist sites, heritage as a tourism product, as well as tourism as a vehicle that will bring about wider development in these sites.
As part of the commemoration of the week the MLCU also got the students engaged with various programs on different themes of heritage preservation. With an aim to exhibit and express individual ideas for cultural heritage preservation, open-to-all online sketching and photography competitions were also organized that saw the response of participants from various states.