Tourism, Reimagined
Right Now, Right Here
The big questionWhat if a destination could show you what is worth experiencing, right now and right here?
If nothing opened, use your browser’s print command (Ctrl or ⌘ + P). The teardown is laid out for it.
The three-minute version
Uttarakhand has a rich supply of experiences, a state policy that puts digital tools and local communities first and, since 27 September 2026, a national digital tourism stack on the way. This series imagines what could be built on those foundations around the moments people actually travel for: seeing an experience, shaping a trip as it unfolds, learning from the people who live there, finding what is open now, following another traveller’s trail and seeing a destination’s pulse. Six shifts, each with its sources and the result that would end it.
Does showing visitors the real experience, and what is open near them right now, lead them to book more local experiences and spread to more places, with enough income reaching small providers and residents to keep them going?
Where things stand.
The question
Uttarakhand has an extraordinary supply of experiences: rivers, forests, villages, pilgrim routes, festivals, food, craft and the people who carry all of it. The state’s Tourism Policy 2023 records visitors rising from about 22 million in 2014 to about 39 million in 2019, and sets a 2030 target for tourism to contribute at least 15 per cent of the state’s GSDP[1].
Think about how a trip really begins. Not with a map or a list of hotels. It begins when you see something: a river cutting through a canyon, a family cooking a meal together, someone walking through a forest as the sun comes up. And you think, “I want to do that.” Everything after it, where it is, how to get there, who offers it, follows from that one feeling.
Travellers already discover this way. In a Google and Kantar survey of Indian travellers, 68 per cent said they use YouTube for travel inspiration, two in five use YouTube Shorts and, among those reliant on influencers, 59 per cent called them very influential[2].
People don’t fall in love with a destination. They fall in love with a moment.
The idea
Instead of destination, search, listing, comparison, booking:
- Experience
- video
- desire
- provider
- booking
Six shifts follow from that, each adding a layer to how a destination is found, shaped and shared. Together they make one loop:
- Discover
- book
- earn
- grow
- create more to discover
Every experience found is a livelihood strengthened. And every livelihood strengthened gives visitors one more reason to come. We wouldn’t start with a statewide platform. We would start with one pocket, such as Maldevta near Dehradun, and build the shifts one at a time, each proven before the next is added.
What already exists
| Where | What already exists |
|---|---|
| State policy | The Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2023 sets a digital-first direction: an integrated platform for information, accreditation of verified providers and bookings for experiences and guides, online registration with a goal of 100 per cent of providers, and an Activity Operator Licence at anchor tourism sites. It asks for local communities to be actively involved[1]. |
| National registry | NIDHI+ registers and classifies tourism service providers. On 23 September 2026 it listed 63,740 accommodation units and 15,531 tourism service providers[3]. |
| Open booking layer | The National Digital Tourism Stack, launched on 27 September 2026 with ONDC, is meant to let providers list across participating platforms, with verified identities, search and discovery, payments, ratings and grievance redress, and to cover experiences and homestays. Its pilot is planned from January 2027[4]. Skift reports that more than 1,000 experiences already transact on the ONDC Network[5]. |
| Spreading visitors | Dekho Apna Desh 2.0, also launched on 27 September 2026, promotes tourism-ready, lesser-known destinations and a more balanced spread of visitors[3][4]. |
| Traveller behaviour | In the Google and Kantar survey, 85 per cent of travellers preferred to book online, and nearly 44 per cent took more than a week to plan and book[2]. |
| Official alerts | The National Disaster Management Authority’s Sachet system brings together warnings from national agencies and every state disaster management authority and sends geo-targeted alerts by SMS, app and portal[6]. |
| Promotion and data | Celebrities and influencers must disclose any material connection with an advertiser[7]. India’s data-protection law requires consent for a lawful purpose and lets consent be withdrawn at any point[8]. |
Scope. The Stack was launched days ago. We have read press reports and a PIB backgrounder, not its specification, and its pilot hasn’t started. We have found no published test of short experience videos, live availability or traveller-made trails in Uttarakhand. The foundations exist, and the design on top of them is what this series sets out to test.
Six shifts, each one testable.
Each shift moves from today’s model to a possible alternative. Open one to see how it would work, the sources behind it, what could go wrong and the result that would end it.
- 01The experience is the advertisement.Destinations→ExperiencesLooking for a pilot partnerRead →
- 02Your trip shouldn’t be finished before you arrive.Fixed itineraries→Living tripsRead →
- 03The best guide to a place is the person who lives there.Listings→Local knowledgeLooking for a pilot partnerRead →
- 04Every empty seat is an experience waiting to happen.Planned bookings→Open capacityRead →
- 05Every traveller knows something the next one doesn’t.Reviews→TrailsRead →
- 06A destination changes every hour. Its guide can too.A snapshot→A pulseLooking for a pilot partnerRead →
The smallest real test.
The set-up
One pocket of the state, such as Maldevta near Dehradun. Ten to fifteen providers make the first videos, and each later shift is added only when the last has proved itself. The pilot is built on the registries and the open booking layer now taking shape, never beside them. Every kill threshold is written down before launch.
What each test would show
| Shift | What is tested | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Shift 1 | The experience as the advertisement | Do the first videos from ten to fifteen providers lead people to watch, save, ask and book, and do providers earn enough to keep going? |
| Shift 2 | Living trips | When offered three suggestions for the next few hours, do visitors act on one, come back for another and rate the day higher than a fixed plan? |
| Shift 3 | Local knowledge | Do twenty to thirty residents in one village share what they know, and do visitors follow it? |
| Shift 4 | Open capacity | Do twenty providers in one town keep their openings current, and is capacity filled that would otherwise have gone empty? |
| Shift 5 | Trails | Do visitors follow ten seeded trails, add their own and book along the way? |
| Shift 6 | The pulse | Does a simple “what’s on now” view change visitors’ plans, spread them to quieter places and help providers fill slots? |
Behind the teardown.
The rules it has to fit, how we would bring it to life, what it would take and how to read it.
The rules this has to fit
Providers. The Policy aims for online registration of all tourism service providers and requires operators at anchor tourism sites to hold an Activity Operator Licence. It says the state will prepare safety guidelines for adventure activities and audit adventure providers twice a year[1]. So only registered and licensed providers are shown as bookable.
Promotion. Celebrities and influencers must disclose a material connection with an advertiser prominently, and must have used the product or service they endorse[7]. Creators and providers who feature experiences follow the same rule.
Booking and refunds. Platforms that sell online fall under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which require a published grievance officer and refunds within a reasonable period[9].
Location and personal data. Consent for a lawful purpose, withdrawal at any point and erasure[8]. The Policy adds that the state platform must ensure a high degree of data privacy and security[1].
Quiet and sensitive places. The Policy calls for analysis of carrying capacity, guidelines to limit tourism’s impact in eco-sensitive areas and decongesting mass-tourism hubs through satellite nodes[1].
Scope. We haven’t taken legal advice. We read the Policy as extracted from its PDF, without its operational guidelines, and haven’t reviewed the policies that govern homestays, which the Policy places outside its incentives. We also haven’t reviewed the forest and protected-area rules that apply to some trails, or any rule on keeping sacred places off digital maps. We found none in the chapters we read.
How we’d bring it to life
Insight Visualization. Agree what must be true: that showing the real experience, and what is open now, leads visitors to book more local experiences and spreads income to small providers.
Situational Awareness. Map every experience with the community, and learn how visitors really choose.
Evolution Cycles. Test each shift small, with real providers and real visitors, on top of NIDHI+ and the Stack rather than beside them.
Grow what works, pocket by pocket.
What it would take
Business Building, Product & Technology Engineering, Systems Architecture, Data & AI, Market Presence & Distribution, Business Model Innovation and Operating Model Design, and a community on the ground from day one.
How to read this teardown
This is a Level 1 · Concept teardown: the idea, how it would work and how we would test it. Every figure is sourced and every policy claim is cited, and the sources are listed at the foot of each page. Examples marked illustrative are constructed to explain an idea, and the numbers inside them are not data. No separate evidence review has yet been commissioned for this series, so it does not carry the claim-by-claim evidence ratings that Level 2 teardowns do.
The travellers, providers and residents in the examples are invented.
What the evidence supports.
Every claim sits in one of four tiers. Sources carry the status of our last check.
How strong it is
- Established
- Uttarakhand’s Tourism Policy 2023 sets a digital-first, community-involved direction; NIDHI+ registers tens of thousands of providers; the National Digital Tourism Stack launched on 27 September 2026; a 2025 Google and Kantar survey found that 68 per cent of Indian travellers use YouTube for travel inspiration.
- Evidence-supported
- Travellers’ reliance on video for inspiration, and on booking online (85 per cent in the same survey), suggests that video-led discovery fits existing habits. The survey was commissioned by Google and does not define every base. We have not reviewed studies of live availability, local-knowledge platforms or traveller-made trails, so none is cited.
- Hypothesis
- That real-moment videos lead to bookings for small providers; that visitors act on live suggestions; that residents will share what they know; that providers will keep openings current; that travellers will make and follow trails; that a live view changes plans and spreads visitors; that small providers earn enough.
- Unknown
- How the Stack’s catalogue, fees and pilot states will work; how the state’s own platform will connect to it; which experiences need which licence; how communities want to be represented; the real incomes of small providers; how reliable live signals are in the hills.
Before a pilot we would confirm
- Confirm the Stack’s specification, pilot states, catalogue rules and fees once they are published, and whether it will carry live availability.
- Confirm with the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board how its Integrated Tourism Platform, registration and activity-operator licensing relate to NIDHI+ and the Stack.
- Read the Policy’s operational guidelines and the homestay policies, and the forest and protected-area access rules that apply to trails.
- Update the visitor figures, which in the Policy end at 2019, from the state’s current statistics.
- Evidence on live availability, local-knowledge platforms and traveller-made trails has not been reviewed.
- Check how the E-Commerce Rules and the influencer-disclosure guidelines apply to the pilot’s design, against their own text.
Notes on the evidence
The Policy’s digital, registration, licensing and community provisions are from chapters 2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14 and 15 of the PDF on the Uttarakhand Tourism website. We read the text as extracted, and the visitor figures end at 2019.
The Stack’s details come from a Press Information Bureau backgrounder of 26 September 2026, which describes it only briefly, and a Business Standard report carrying PTI copy of 28 September 2026. The pilot date is repeated in other outlets. The target of 23,000 experiences and homestays by the end of 2028 appears in the PTI report and in Skift.
The count of more than 1,000 experiences on the ONDC Network comes from Skift, 3 October 2026, and we haven’t cross-checked it with ONDC.
The Google and Kantar survey covered 1,000 online adults aged 18 and over in India in 2025. Google’s page does not state the denominator for every percentage.
NIDHI+ counts are as of 23 September 2026, from the PIB backgrounder. The influencer-disclosure guidelines and the E-Commerce Rules were read through a news report and a law-firm summary.
Sources
- [1]Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Uttarakhand Tourism Policy 2023, chapters 2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14 and 15Checked; the policy text as extracted from the PDF on the Board’s website
- [2]Google, Win over India’s travellers in 2026, Think with Google (19 November 2025), reporting a Google and Kantar Travellers study (n=1,000 online adults aged 18+, 2025)Checked; Google’s own page, a Google-commissioned survey
- [3]Press Information Bureau, Backgrounder: World Tourism Day 2026 (26 September 2026)Checked; a government backgrounder
- [4]Business Standard, Govt launches initiative to build digital public infra for tourism sector (28 September 2026, PTI)Checked; a news agency report
- [5]Skift, India Now Has a “Digital Tourism Stack.” Can it Fix a Fragmented Market? (3 October 2026)Checked; a trade-press report
- [6]Press Information Bureau, Strengthening Disaster Management (16 December 2025), Ministry of Home AffairsChecked; a government release, as hosted on the NDRF website
- [7]The Leaflet, Guidelines mandate social media influencers to make clear disclosures on endorsements (22 January 2023)Checked; a news report on guidelines issued on 20 January 2023
- [8]PRS Legislative Research, The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023Checked; a summary of the Bill as passed by Parliament in August 2023
- [9]Trilegal, Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 (5 August 2020)Checked via a law-firm summary; the Rules’ own text not read
Spotted a source we missed or a rule we misread? Tell us what we got wrong.
Looking for a pilot partner
We would most like to test shifts 1, 3 and 6 with a real partner. If one of them fits a pilot you could host, fund or take part in, we would like to hear from you.
Help every experience be seen, every open moment be found and every visitor leave the place better known, and a destination will keep discovering itself.