One TAC
In Udupi, the sea is never quiet. But for years, the people who shaped its stories were.
The Problem on the Coastline
Tourists arrive for the Krishna temple and a plate of dosas, then leave, never knowing Udupi is also a growing surf coast and part of a fragile Olive Ridley turtle nesting belt. Surf instructors, nature guides, home cooks, and culture-keepers hold the place together, yet almost all work informally: no credit, no digital presence, and no say in how “tourism” is planned. Multiply that by hundreds of districts and you get India’s experience economy: vibrant on the surface, but structurally fragile underneath.
OneTAC: Giving the Experience Economy a Spine
Culkey’s answer is OneTAC (One Tourism, Arts, and Culture), a public-private-community grid built on one belief: places stay alive only when the people who keep them alive can thrive. OneTAC treats TAC actors as core infrastructure, not extras. It builds a “phygital” ladder for them to move from informal to formal: first by listening and mapping, then assisting with mentoring, co-creating clear offerings, and finally introducing registration to link them to credit, equity, and markets.
The OneTAC Hub is where this happens on the ground, a local control room for a region’s experience economy.
Udupi: Switching on the First Hub
In Udupi, the Hub walked the beaches, lanes, and backwaters alongside a local non-profit to:
- Identify 20+ informal actors.
- Unpack 100+ products, services, and experiences, from surf lessons and coastal food trails to turtle-awareness walks and backwater ecology rides.
Then the “ladder work” began: structuring offerings, stabilizing digital payments, and creating authentic digital profiles. Seven actors have already chosen to formalize aspects of their work and are now discoverable and transactable on curated platforms—a small number, perhaps, but proof that when a system is designed around them, the climb is possible.
An Ecosystem Orbit, Not a Lonely Climb
No one is expected to navigate this alone. Around each Hub, OneTAC convenes partners: RubiX (markets), Samhita Foundation (debt), NICEOrg (equity), NucleHQ (accelerator), Blue Dot/EkStep (livelihoods and discovery), and Head Held High (local mentoring). These partners operate within advisory mechanisms aligned with ESG, SDGs, and Schedule VII. Together, they form a spine beneath each small enterprise, ensuring formalization feels like support, not a risk.
From One Coast to a New Default
Udupi is the first proof that Culkey’s vision, experiences that keep places alive and people thriving is operational, not just aspirational. By 2026, OneTAC aims to activate at least four clusters in Karnataka and help 1,000 informal TAC actors access credit, markets, and digital capabilities across temple towns, coasts, forests, and heritage precincts. Each new cluster redraws the map: moving from a country known only by its “big attractions” to one where the real custodians of a place finally appear in ink everyone can see.