MYSORE: Karnataka, which stands fourth in India in terms of international tourist arrivals, urgently requires 15,000 more hotel rooms in Bangalore and 3,000 hotel rooms in Mysore to provide accommodation to the growing number of visitors.

Of the 3.7 million international tourist arrivals in India in 2005-06, Karnataka accounted for 5.4 lakh of them, which is about 14 per cent of the country's figure. "A majority of foreign tourists coming to Karnataka arrive in Bangalore and return from there," Karnataka's Tourism Commissioner G. Kumar Naik has said.

Speaking at the Annual Members' Day at the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Mysore Zone, here on Saturday, Mr. Naik said the Caribbean islands had added about 15,000 hotel rooms in 2005-06. Mexico also added around 15,000 hotel rooms the same year. Turkey had launched an international campaign to boost tourism, he said.

Karnataka, which had to compete with "super-brands" within India such as Goa and Kerala, had its task clearly cut out with tourism set to become one of the biggest employment-generating sectors. "Tourism will be the new economic frontier," he said.

Karnataka has launched a number of schemes to promote entrepreneurship in the tourism sector.

The Department of Tourism was driving investment in the tourism sector, Mr. Naik said.

The Union Government, which had launched a training programme to produce tourism executives, was planning to start Tourism Institutes on the lines of the National Law School of India University.

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