The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Package tours to include lesser-known centres

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Friday, Aug 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Package tours to include lesser-known centres

Special Correspondent

Government to announce new tourism policy within a month

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation is streamlining its package tours to make them more “tourist friendly,” by including lesser-known tourist centres.

At the valedictory function of the 13-day guide training course, organised by the Corporation and the Anna Institute of Management, Chennai, Corporation’s Managing Director and Director of Tourism M. Rajaram said new travel circuits and less popular tourist spots would be included in the package tours to blend with the “Enchanting Tamil Nadu” brand.

The Government would come out with a new tourism policy within a month, Mr. Rajaram said.

Those who successfully completed the course should learn foreign languages. There was an enormous scope for employment as interpreters and translators as Tamil Nadu was becoming a “hub of medical tourism.”

Medical desk

A 24-hour medical desk was being set up at the Corporation office in the city, he said.

A cultural extravaganza, Thanjavur Splendour, would be organised by the Tourism Department and the Corporation.

Taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers and frontline staff of the hospitality industry were partners of the tourism sector and would be imparted training, he said.

Director of the Anna Institute of Management and Director-General of Training A. Nagarajan appealed to the participants to take the spirit of India to foreign tourists and showcase tourist spots in the right perspective.

The Institute, he said, would incorporate the feedback from the participants into the second phase of the course planned at Kanyakumari, Madurai and Thanjavur. He gave away certificates to 27 participants.

Training module

R. Ram Prabhu, Dean of the Institute, and V. Vidyasagar, Programme Director, said the Institute would prepare a training module that would meet the requirements nationwide.

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