The Hindu : Karnataka News : Centre taking steps to attract tourists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Centre taking steps to attract tourists

By Our Staff Correspondent

HAMPI, OCT. 13. To attract more foreign tourists, the Government of India will strive hard to introduce "single visa travel" for all SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) countries and make arrangements to provide "visa on arrival" to foreign tourists, Renuka Choudhary, Union Minister of State for Tourism, has said.

Ms. Choudhary was speaking here on Tuesday after inaugurating the first-ever national camp for artists near the Virupaksha Temple. The camp has been organised by the Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Tourism, Government of Karnataka, as part of a campaign to promote Hampi as a tourist destination.

Reiterating that the United Progressive Alliance was committed to promoting tourism, she said steps were being taken to solve the problems affecting the tourism sector. Development of tourism would give a boost to trade and business and generate employment, she said. "With this in view, the Government is in favour of introducing single visa travel and visa-on-arrival to attract more foreign tourists," she said.

Night bazaars

Ms. Choudhary said the Government was contemplating promoting "night bazaars" in major cities and rural areas as was being done in New Delhi. Allied services such as "tourism police" to support these bazaars would also be looked into, she said.

"The Ministry will train human resources in transport, hospitality and health sectors to be more tourist-friendly. It will also concentrate on domestic tourism, which is a huge sector," she said.

With regard to Hampi, she said the Government had been making all efforts to project Hampi as an international tourist destination. She called upon the local people to support the Government in this endeavour.

On the camp, she said artists from all over the country had been invited to create their vision of Hampi on canvas. "These paintings will then serve as ambassadors of Hampi."

Thanked

M.P. Prakash, Minister for Revenue, who presided over the function, thanked the Union Minister for promising to release Rs. 15 lakhs for the Hampi Utsav, a three-day mega cultural festival of dance drama and music, and for taking steps to organise the camp at Hampi.

Several renowned artists from various parts of the country, including Shiva Prasanna, Shipra Bhattacharya, Shamshad Hussain, Subrato, Sudip Rai, Satish Chauhan and Jaikumar are attending the camp.

K. Virupakshappa, Koppal MP; H.R. Gaviyappa, Hospet MLA; and Thimmakka, President of the Hampi Gram Panchayat; were present.

Mahendra Jain, Commissioner for Tourism, who welcomed the gathering, said: "The magnificence of Hampi will be good inspiration for these artists to vent their creativity. Exhibitions of these paintings will be held later."

Earlier, Ms. Choudhary laid the foundation stone for a building to commemorate the birth centenary of the former Prime Minister, the late Choudhary Charan Singh.

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