The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Make South a tourist hub, says YSR

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 29, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Make South a tourist hub, says YSR

Staff Reporter

Call for concerted effort to woo the foreign traveller

WARM WELCOME: The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, greets A. Namassivayam, Minister for Agriculture, Pondicherry (left), at the conference of tourism ministers in Hyderabad on Thursday as J. Geeta Reddy, Minister for Tourism, and D.T. Jayakuma r, Minister for Tourism, Karnataka, look on. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD: The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, has called for a combined effort by southern States to woo the foreign traveller to look beyond the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur circuit.

Inaugurating the South Indian Tourism Ministers conference here on Thursday, Dr. Reddy said they should leverage their combined strengths and replace competitiveness with cooperation.

Their approach should be to coordinate in all areas of tourism growth and position South India as one large block.

The Chief Minister said South put together had everything that a traveller could ask for -- nature, religious and spiritual heritage, culture, art and craft, varied cuisine and new and interesting tourism products.

Ambitious target

Dr. Reddy felt their aim should be to double the present inflow, both domestic and international, into south India over the next five years.

Stating that the South India Tourism Council (SITCON) would help in initiating a dialogue among all stakeholders in the region, he expressed confidence that in the years to come it would be a platform to unify their combined interests and promote South India as the most attractive tourist destination, he said.

The Chief Minister felt that "Southern Splendour," the proposed luxury train of South India, could become extremely popular among tourists because of its competitive tariff, among other things.

This would cover all five southern States and would be the new tourist landmark in about 18 months.

Circuits identification

The Karnataka Tourism Minister, D.T. Jayakumar, said by promoting each State individually and competing among themselves, they were not only frittering away the scarce resources but confusing tourists.

Instead, it would be useful to identify various circuits across southern States for different products such as heritage, culture, pilgrimage, wildlife, coastal, backwaters and world heritage sites.

`Sampoorna yatra'

He envisioned a "sampoorna yatra'' for the traveller coming to this part of the country -- a choice of destinations to see, cuisines to taste and cultures to experience.

He called for a uniform motor vehicles and entry tax structure across the southern States which could go a long way in streamlining movement of vehicles across the borders.

Otherwise, harassment at the borders was a common complaint of tourists, tour operators and travel agents.

Nod for `Splendour'

The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister, J. Geeta Reddy, said "Southern Splendour'' had received approval from the Government of India "in principle'' and a Special Purpose Vehicle for the same would be registered soon.

Pondicherry was represented by its Agriculture Minister, A. Namassivayam, while tourism officials of Tamil Nadu and Kerala were present.

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