Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 14, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 14, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Tourism Karnataka to woo tourists from Bengal Our Bureau
Dancers from Karnataka perform during a press conference by Karnataka Tourism, in Kolkata on Wednesday. Karnataka is also participating in Travel and Tourism Fair 2003 as a partner state, which will begin from Thursday in Kolkata. - Parth Sanyal
Kolkata , Aug. 13 WAY back in 1916, Rabindranath Tagore penned one of his poems at a hill lodge on the Karwar beach in Karnataka. Nearly a century later, the Karnataka Government is trying to use this association in an effort to woo Bengali tourists to visit the southern State. Mr D.B. Inamdar, Karnataka Minister for Tourism and Information Technology, said that worldwide, Bangalore's brand equity as an IT centre was strong. "We intend to be better known as a global tourism hot spot," he said. He said that studies had been initiated to chart out a 10-year tourism development plan and negotiations were on with international and domestic hospitality groups, theme parks and tourism companies to funnel the required investments into various tourist destinations across Karnataka. "In 10 years we foresee tourism and its downstream business as Karnataka's largest revenue earner, employer and tax generator," he said addressing a press conference here on Wednesday. According to the departmental secretary, Mr S.M. Acharya, Karnataka and West Bengal could develop a strategic alliance to channel tourists to Karnataka. He however said that no tie-ups had been proposed with the State Government in this regard though the Karnataka Government was negotiating with some tour operators here to market the State in a more focussed way. He said that though the State Government had been receiving a fair amount of Bengali tourists, this was the first effort to market the State's tourism wares in an integrated manner. The government was also participating in the three-day tourism exposition being held here. Mr Acharya said that while Karnataka attracted 1.2 crore domestic tourists and 2.7 lakh international tourists annually, it had the capacity to handle five crore tourists every year. He said that with 11 national parks, virgin beaches, the ruins of Hampi (a world heritage site) and the plantation town of Coorg, Karnataka had already generated global interest.
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