The Hindu : Kerala News : Tourism: focus on IT professionals

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Monday, Nov 05, 2007
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Kerala

Tourism: focus on IT professionals

Staff Reporter

North Kerala to be marketed as ideal location

Survey on for Nanjankode-Nilambur rail line
Private sector participation in tourism

MALAPPURAM: The tourism destinations of Malabar, particularly Wayanad and Malappuram, will be redesigned to attract thousands of professionals working in Karnataka’s information technology (IT) sector. Minister for Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said tourist spots of North Kerala would be marketed as ideal locations for the IT professionals to spend their weekends.

He was speaking after inaugurating Tamarind Easy Hotel, the second in Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC)’s budget hotel chain, near Calicut International Airport at Karipur on Sunday.

Mr. Balakrishnan said the Tourism Department had identified the potential of developing hill tourism and wanted the proposed Nanjankode-Nilambur Railway line to be a reality. He said the Centre had initiated a survey for the proposed rail line.

The Minister said new tourist destinations would be identified and promoted in the State with the help of Central and State Tourism Departments. He said no asset of the KTDC would be handed over to private parties as part of developing tourism.

Mr. Balakrishnan said the public sector units would ensure their vigorous involvement along with private parties for development of tourism in the State. Tourism is not the responsibility of private parties alone; the public sector too can play an equally invigorating role, he said.

Presiding over the function, KTDC Chairman Cheriyan Philip said that tourism was not the domain of the rich alone. Even the poor and the middle class should have access to tourist destinations, he said. He said the Tamarind Easy Hotel near Karipur, formerly the Yatri Nivas that was lying in disuse for over four years, would serve as the gateway of Malabar’s tourism.

He said 15 Tamarind Easy Hotels were being set up across the State as part of promoting the budget hotel chain of the KTDC. The first one was launched at Tirunelli. The next will be at Kalady with easy access to the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery.

Eight Yatri Nivas hotels will be converted into Tamarind Easy Hotels. However, the Yatri Nivas hotels of Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode will continue, he said.

Tamarind hotels are being set up in Nilambur and Sulthan Bathery. The Nilambur hotel will be ready for use in three months, he said.

K.G. Mohanlal, KTDC managing director; Sumana N. Menon, District Collector; and P. Vijayan, District Superintendent of Police; offered felicitations.

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