Southern Circuit to lure foreign tourists

Mysore, Mar 12 (UNI) With a goal to enhance the tourist appeal and to improve the international tourist arrival trend in the country, Karnataka has launched the Southern Circuit of tourist destinations, covering a variety of tourist hotspots in and around this heritage city.

Tourism department sources told UNI here that of the 3.7 million international tourist inflow into the country in 2005-2006, Karnataka accounted for 5.4 lakh, about 14 per cent of the country's figure.

The sources said Karnataka was promoting integrated tourism. The Southern Circuit encompassed a bit of all types of tourism, be it historical (Srirangapatna, Mysore and Somanathapura), wildlife (Ranganthittu bird sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Kokharebellur, M M Hills and B R Hills), religious (Nanjangud and Talakad) or water bodies (Mekedatu, Shivanasamudram falls and Brindavan Gardens at Krishna Raja Sagar reservoir).

But, the tourism department felt that there was an urgent requirement of 15,000 more hotel rooms in Bangalore and Mysore to provide accommodation to the growing number of domestic and international visitors.

Karnataka Tourism Commissioner Kumar Naik, who was here to participate in the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said the Caribbean islands and Mexico had added about 15,000 hotel rooms in 2005-2006. Karnataka, which had to compete with super brands within India such as Goa and Kerala, had its task clearly cut out.

He said 808 million international tourist arrivals were registered across the world in 2005-2006, of which India accounted for 3.7 million. However, the country was short of one lakh hotel rooms. The growth forecast in the tourism sector appeared bright with an estimated one billion people expected to criss cross the world by 2010, registering a growth of 4.1 per cent. The growth in South Asian nations was likely to be little better at five per cent.

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