TN to come out with a new tourism policy

Ahmedabad, Sep 9 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government will soon come out with a new tourism policy to project the state as an attractive tourists destination.

Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TNTDC) director M Rajaram, who was on a visit to Ahmedbad, told reporters here that TNTDC is streamlining its package tours to make them more ''tourist friendly'' by including lesser-known tourist destinations, new travel circuits and less popular tourist spots.

Mr Rajaram said Western India was a major source of tourist arrivals in Tamil Nadu, and there has been an increase of tourists from Ahmedabad and other cities Gujarat. He informed that in 2004, there were 3.90 lakh tourists from Gujarat to his state while in 2005, the figure was 3.88 lakh. In 2006, the number of tourists from Gujarat was recorded at 5.09 lakh.

Tamil Nadu, Mr Rajaram said, has many tourist attractions like hill resorts and pilgrimage centres. There has now been a growing focus on medical tourism, he said while pointing out that Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore have world famous hospitals offering good treatment at affordable price.

Mr Rajaram informed that Chennai will host an international water sports meet in December and, prior to that, a travel agents convention will be held at the Chennai Trade Centre from October five to eight.

UNI