Capacity building program held for weaver’s on soft skills development in hospitality and tourism management

Bhubaneswar: The Handlooms, Textiles & Handicrafts Dept., Govt of Odisha and Dept. of Tourism is taking structured and far-reaching interventions for the development and promotion of the Crafts and tourism sector in the state. The state government has taken active steps in Integrating century-old handloom legacy with tourism to promote rural tourism in order to popularize not only another form of tourism that will attract both domestic and foreign visitors alike but also to provide opportunities to rural populations to improve their socioeconomic condition.

A weaver’s craft village Bayanagram was inaugurated at Jaipur, Jagatsinghpur district and work on developing Maniabandha Buddhist handloom village tourism and Tassar craft village at Gopalpur and many more is under progress.

It is observed that many foreign and domestic tourists visit different handloom clusters of Odisha to understand the various techniques and methods pertaining to the crafts and also for business purposes. It is necessary for the artisans/community to have the skills set to engage the tourist/visitors in an informative and enriching hand on experience.

So it is proposed that 730 master weavers/ awardees/ entrepreneurs/ Artisans of 73 handlooms clusters across Odisha will be trained in soft skills development in hospitality and tourism management.

In view of the above, a training program for weavers of Cuttack zone has been organized by Deputy Director of Textiles, Cuttack on 15^th & 16^th Sep-22. The program was conducted by the Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management, Bhubaneswar and implemented by SADHAC. 80 weavers from Jajpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara, and Jagatsinghpur districts were trained in 2 days programme.

Mr Ashutosh Mahanty, DDT, Cuttack & Mr Dilip Bagh, CEO, SADHAC inaugurated the training program. Dr B.Swajan Asst.Prof., Mr Bhabatosh Dehury and Mr Dev Ghadei of IITTM trained the weavers on communication skills, personnel grooming, hygiene and soft skills, personality development, and behavioural etiquette. Etc.

This training will enable and empower the community to exchange valuable information with the tourist as well as quality service to the tourist. Thus Community capacity building is widely acknowledged as an important tourism development strategy. Community capacity building is a necessary ingredient for the success of community development. Tourism development and building the capacity for local communities need to progress hand in hand.