With an innovative idea – Placexplore Lab a tourism incubator aimed at community-based tourism and experiential travel has been launched. The programme is being hosted by the Urban Vision, Red Dot Foundation Global,Udupi Tourismand Mangaluru City Corporation with support from Vital Voices Fortune Mentoring Program of the United States Department of state.
The experimental ‘Udupi in a box’ a memento consists of the products made from GI tagged items from the Udupi district or for that matter wellness shots and juices featuring local flowers like blue pea (Shanka Pushpa),hibiscusand Jasmine.
The box will also give a fillip to local jasmine cultivators, who often reel under arbitrary pricing and limited local market.
The launch and design hackathon was organised on October 31 and featured micro-entrepreneurs from the twin districts working on various initiatives.
There was a range of tourism microenterprise initiatives from surf schools, fishing tours, local artisans with coconut, and bamboo weaving crafts, Yakshagana, eco-tours to farm tours.