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rkumar
June 25th, 2006, 11:31 AM
Dear Friends,

Following is the story which I would call the real entrepreneurship. Look at the people how they can market even our slums overseas. Often I have heard of rural tourism and few persons getting involved in that. However, I am not sure how far they have been successful.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060625/nation.htm#4
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Dharavi — Mumbai’s latest tourist attraction
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, June 24
Inspired by Prince Charles and former US President Bill Clinton who added Dharavi and other slum areas of Mumbai in their travel itineraries, a travel agency here is exploiting the tourism potential of the city’s hovels.

Reality Tours and Travels, a travel agency promoted by a former British social worker and some of his local associates, is now taking foreign and Indian tourists on a guided tour of Dharavi, Kamathipura, city’s red light area, and dhobi ghat for as little as Rs 600 per head per day.

“We started with Dharavi, but after we got good response we included areas like Kamatipura and other areas,” says Mr Krishna Poojari, a partner of the company. According to Mr Poojari, the success of the novel, Shantaram, which has graphic details of Mumbai’s slum areas, has also provided a big boost to the business.

According to the agency’s website, it “specialises in guided tours of Dharavi - Asia’s biggest slum - a place of poverty and hardship but also a place of enterprise, humour and non-stop activity”. The agency claims that 80 per cent of the profits after tax from these slum tours go to local NGOs who work for the less privileged members of the society.

The idea for this tour package came from the agency’s British co-promoter Chris Way who was inspired by similar ventures in Brazil’s slums.

RTT’s tour groups are small so that the visitors to the slum areas are unobtrusive and do not intrude in the lifestyle of the people they are going to see, its promoters say.

The slum tourists can choose from long and short tours. The long full day tour has tourists travelling by an air-conditioned car from Colaba to Dharavi in Central Mumbai via the sprawling Dhobi Ghat, the red-light district, and other attractions. The short tour consists of just a tour of Dharavi. Tourists are picked up from Mahim railway station and taken on a tour of the slum colony............................................ ..............................................

RK^2