South unveil new tourism initiatives and investments

Hyderabad, May 20 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry outlined the new tourism initiatives and the investment opportunities in each of their states on the concluding day of the 'Look South 2007 Conference and Exhibition', organised by FICCI and the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Ms Chitra Ramachandran, Secretary, Tourism&Culture, Andhra Pradesh said the state was fast emerging as the most favoured tourist destination, with 24 per cent of domestic tourist arrivals in the country being received by Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam tourism hotspots.

Ms Ramachandran gave an overview of the ongoing multi-faceted initiatives and projects and outlined the future strategies. These include, accent of wider international connectivity, heritage tourism circuits, positioning Andhra Pradesh as a destination for business, medical care, health, adventure and sports tourism, focus on rural tourism, strategic positioning and focused marketing.

Giving the broad contours of the new tourism policy for Karnataka, G Kumar Naik, Commissioner Tourism, Karnataka said the thrust of the new policy would be on de-regulation, with proactive steps to attract investors in a Private-Public Partnership mode.

Mr Naik said the policy would be so designed as to facilitate creation of various zones in the state linked to investment incentives, encouraging set up of Home Stay accommodation across the state to promote experimential tourism, as the Coorg experiment had been successful with more than 400 such facilities currently available.

Sanjay Kaul, Director Tourism, Kerala, in his presentation spoke of the consistent growth of the tourism industry in the state.

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