Digital Interventions in Heritage Tourism: Examining the Role of PRASHANT and Swadesh Darshan Schemes in Preserving and Promoting Uttar Pradesh’s Cultural and Architectural Circuits

Abstract

The heritage tourism is also being transformed by the digital technologies, which improved the connection with the visitors, revitalized the cultural narratives, and strengthened the preservation efforts. The paper examines how the cultural and architectural heritage of Uttar Pradesh has been retained and promoted through the two new projects in India, one of which covers PRASHANT, a digital intervention model that seeks to promote heritage awareness of particular regions, and Swadesh Darshan Scheme, a central-government programme that seeks to create theme-based tourism circuits. The paper will focus on the ways in which the integration of the digital solutions, including interactive mobile applications, virtual walkthroughs, GIS maps and heritage interpretation applications, as a subset of PRASHANT, can introduce more accessible and interactive experiences to the tourist. It also speculates how the circuit-based development of Swadesh Darshan, particularly in Buddhist, Ramayana and architectural heritage circuit, will create a facilitating infrastructure on which the digital strategies will prosper. The research uses a mixed-methodology that includes the analysis of the documents, field observations, and the stakeholder interviews with the tourism staff, conservation experts, and the local communities as the means of studying the success, difficulty, and sustainability of long-term prosperity of such interventions. The results point to the fact that PRASHANT digital projects enhance heritage literacy, diversify visitor profiles, and mitigate excessive strain on vulnerable sites with the help of virtual alternatives. At the same time, the physical and interpretive improvement of Swadesh Darshan preconditions the necessary base on which digital mediums will be able to take off. Nonetheless, there are still gaps in digital access, multilingual content, training on the community level, and maintenance of technological assets in the long term.

The paper concludes that the interaction of digital intervention and infrastructural development is a strong force that improves the heritage tourism in Uttar Pradesh. To maintain these gains, it is essential to strengthen the involvement of the people on the ground, guarantee the integrity of data, and increase digital inclusiveness. The paper highlights the increasing prospects of the integrated digital schemes to conserve, understand and market the rich cultural and architectural routes in India more vibrant and accountable.