Bommai holds Tourism Department review meeting; discusses waterways in Cauvery River, Kabini Dam Park
Bengaluru: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has asked the Tourism Department to accord priority to implementing the tourism circuits of Mysuru-Belur-Halebeedu and Hampi-Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal.
Reviewing the progress of the Tourism Department at his office yesterday, the CM said that as announced in the State Budget, the tourism circuits must be developed without any further delay. Bommai noted that tourism plays a vital role in the State’s economic progress and promotion of culture. In view of this, the Government has given priority to the development of tourism.
“The Mysuru-Belur-Halebeedu tourism circuit must be ready for inauguration during Dasara and the Hampi Circuit must be kept ready for an opening during Deepavali. These circuits must also include adventure sports and entertainment activities,” Bommai said.
He also instructed Tourism Department officials to give priority to providing the basic amenities at all tourist spots to improve tourism footfalls. “Effective and widespread publicity must be given to the tourism circuits and also the other tourism projects of Karnataka where even the domestic tourists are pulled along with global tourists,” he said.
“The existing tourism website must be redesigned with mode details, user-friendly features and also the audit of Tourism Department assets in order to make them revenue generating,” he added.
“The Government has formulated the guidelines for the adoption and maintenance of the monuments which have been announced in the Budget. Details of monuments and expenditure must be prepared and a website must be created for the public to glean information,” he said.
Monument adoption scheme
The CM said he would write personally to all corporate companies about the monument adoption scheme. The Tourism Department must have perfect coordination with the Department of Industries and Commerce. He said that he would also hold a meeting with the Archaeological Survey of India to discuss providing more facilities to tourists visiting the Badami caves and also to make it more attractive.
Tourist guides
There are over 400 registered tourist guides in the Department of Tourism who are paid a monthly honorarium of Rs. 2,000 each. Arrangements are being made to provide training for improvement in their communication skills at Hampi University. The CM said waterways must be created in the Cauvery, Kali and Alamatti River areas and submit a proposal for the development of tourism. Parks can be developed on the dam sites of Kabini, Hidkal and Gorur Reservoirs, he said.
Tourism Minister Anand Singh, Karnataka Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Ka.Pu. Siddalingaswamy, Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary N. Manjunath Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary and Development Commissioner I.S.N. Prasad, Tourism Department Secretary N.V. Prasad and other senior officials were present.
Kerala Tourism recently got the accolade of being on the list of Top 50 Extraordinary Tourist Destinations in the World by TIME Magazine. With such efforts, even Karnataka Tourism can aim for such accolades in the Future.
@Sanjay Kini
Mysore was once an idyllic place lwhich tourists liked. That was in 1950s, when the city was surrounded by forests with mango and palm tress, offering a good visit to savour the nature. It was gone in 1970s, when massive influx of non-Mysoreans flooded the city and finished off the forest. I was a student of engineering in this city in 1950s and like the city then.. It is now gone the Bangalore way.
Mysoreans are idiots to let their beautiful city destroyed by the politicians.
Keralites preserve their state’s natural beauty-the rivers and the their excellent shores which were developed as nature spots and above all the Ayurvedic clinics with traditional treatments for chronic illnesses, all make this state an attractive proposition for rich foreign tourists. Kerala is the only state in India, which registers well with foreign tourists, who like the palm tree- studded huts near river banks, where they stay when they are getting a course of Ayurvedic treatment.
The above areas are preserved and developed as spots of nature, unlike in Karnataka, where concreting development s the norm.
Kerala has arguably one of the best medical institutions-Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences, where the director and the specialists are appointed based on their expertise, recruited from all over India and a few from abroad, unlike in Karnataka, where these specialists are Gowdas and Lingayats closely linked to the political thugs like Deve Gowda or Yedi. It also attracts health tourists from other states.
Mysore offers poor quality private clinics, which fleece patients and its doctors qualified based on their backward caste status and not on merit.
Before Sri Lanka degenerated into a country of anarchy, Sri Lanka attracted rich foreign tourists, as it preserved the nature of palm tress and fruit bushes, the same way as Kerala, attracting massive numbers of rich foreign tourists-even the late Helmut Kohl, the Chancellor of Germany in 1980s, took his vacation in Sri Lanka.
@Kini ‘s silly dreams about Mysore and Karnataka will never materialise. All Mysore can offer is its dense population, fumes of petrol vehicles in the streets, and places like the Palace and Chamundi Hill which is crumbling any way, do not hold much interest for the foreign tourists. They do not want to see buildings, and 5 star hotels, but want to relax in natural habitats.
Finally, Kerala has studied the mind set of rich foreign tourists. These tourists want to relax in a natural abode, undisturbed by the modern transport, and the famed Kerala Ayurvedic treatment which allows them to do so in the small hamlets surrounded by coconut and palm trees, providing the idyllic place to rest and relax. These foreign tourists have excellent 5 -star hotels in their own countries and do not want the likes of them , but hanker after the complete serene places Kerala provides.
Indian tourist departments led by idiots like Ballal who writes nonsense in this paper were not listened to by the Kerala government. Hence the tourism there is thriving with serene places, while Karnataka contributes choking polluted cities.
Indian Tourism officials visit Western countries, stay in 5 star hotels and wander around sight seeing and buying goos for them to take home and seldom meet the real tourists to who they can sell India. It is always a pleasure trips for them.
Not one of the above officials visited Kerala and had chats with the foreign tourists who visit there every year.
The highways, the helicopter ride and drops, the 5 star hotels do not interest tourists who want to think about India. The main concerns for them is the poor hygiene , the stray dogs, the beggars , the rip off merchants and the poor quality of food and lastly the population, the pollution and even for older women , the fear of rape.
Kerala government offers experience for the foreign tourists who are mainly retirees with savings, the calm atmosphere , away from cities, which small villages tailored to their needs are developed. These old tourists, some young as well, are interested in the Ayurvedic medicines, mainly the herbs -based oil which they can rub, and a fortnight treatment for arthritis or digestive disorders. The food served is fresh with plenty of vegetables and fruits, fresh fish cooked , all washed down with coconut water from the fresh nut. These tourists touched down at Cochin and trivandrum airports are picked straight away to their places of residence, which are huts decorated with palm tree barks in the midst of jasmine trees clusters. These are the visitors coming regularly every year for years, and they fly out without visiting the cities nearby.
Karanataka and Mysore is far too developed, and forests cleared, and even villages nearby Mysore are well developed with roads and cars-these are not what foreign tourists want. They will never get attracted to the Mysore airport, the helicopter drop at the top of the Chamundi Hill etc..
In a way, Kerala learned from SriLanka of past years, which attracted 50 times as many foreign tourists India did, presenting a different nature-filled resting places, where tourists sipped coconut water and tea.
Karnataka lost out for ever. Wrong assumptions and wrong values to attract foreign tourists, who are not interested in private hospitals, but what Kerala can provide in terms of Ayurvedic treatment.
I know three Western families who have children in the city I live in the West, who visit Kerlala every year. They have been doing this from the past 5 years.
For them it is the rural setting where they can live in comfortable huts, surrounded by fruit trees, and flower blooming that settled Kerala for them. Their children can walk and play without being harassed by men , without being threatened by automobiles and the family outings are usually within th e secured region. They can help themselves with low hanging fruits.. They can marvel at the guava trees bearing fruits, trees witth jackfruits, fresh bananas, green sprouting in the banana plantation, and ofcourse coconut water drank straight from the coconut felled from the tree. This is the kind of atmosphere, the Westers enjoy and Kerala provides it in plenty. Minor niggling illnesses aare treated with traditional medicine. The women very much like the cooking done in fresh coconut oil, and they have hair treatment done through the virgin coconut oil rub. Plus quantities of them to take home .
Karnataka’s mind set does not provide the above.