Realising the fact that the economy of many countries are based on tourism, R V Deshpande, Minister for Tourism, Govt. of Karnataka, has taken up the task to promote Karnataka as a premium tourism destination in the country. “Karnataka offers ample variety of tourism. Be it beach, wildlife, eco, religious, heritage, rural and cultural tourism, Karnataka offers something to every visitors. We have not focused on the development of tourism to realise its full potential. We are now giving high priority to tourism and would like to take full advantage of its potential. We are building infrastructure and human resource,” he said.
Elaborating on the initiatives taken by the government, he said, “We have formed a Vision Group with experts from diverse fields. The Group is giving final touches to a dynamic tourism policy. We have prepared a draft for a new act – Tourism Trade Facilitation Act – to ensure safety of tourists. We are also planning to set up Corporation to give a boost to infrastructure in the tourism sector.”
Moreover, Karnataka recently approached the Union Ministry of Environment seeking relaxation of regulations that do not permit resorts to come up within 200 metres of the coastline, he said and informed that Karnataka has 32 beaches and 11 islands along its 320–km coastline, which need to be developed for tourism. According to him, Karnataka will have the best tourism policy in India that will open doors for investors.
Deshpande also opined that state is looking at private investment in tourism sector. “Karnataka has received private investment in every sector. We are looking at wooing private investment to develop tourism infrastructure in the state. We are willing to invite investors to run government-owned tourism properties that are not doing good business,” he said, and added that governments have no business to run businesses.
To support the growth, the state government is also focusing on creating a pool of skilled manpower. “It is also important to choose the right people for the right job. Our focus, along with infrastructure development, is to create a large pool of skilled manpower. The department is in talks with universities to introduce short-terms courses to add human resource to the travel industry,especially multiple language speaking guides managing the tourists,” Deshpande, who is also Minister for Higher Education, said.
Arvind Jadhav, Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka Tourism, said, “Our target is to train 70,000 tourism personnel by 2020. We want to make each one of them capable of telling a story to those embarking on a journey in India.”
The Minister also highlighted the initiatives taken on aviation front. “We are in touch with the Civil Aviation Ministry and airlines to launch flights to the state’s smaller airports and improve connectivity,” he said. He further welcomed the Centre’s visa-on-arrival policy. “Visa-on-arrival facility has been introduced at the Bangalore airport to nationals of 11 countries and 23 more countries are likely to be added to the list soon,” he informed.
