The Hindu : Front Page : Focus on tourism as offshoot of education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 11, 2007
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Focus on tourism as offshoot of education

D. Radhakrishnan

Udhagamandalam: Many of the schools in the Nilgiris not only provide good education but also aid tourism. The tourism traffic-related potential has, however, remained largely untapped, though the number of schools, particularly the residential ones, has been rising.

Educationists and traders have expressed the opinion that a plan of action should be put in place not only to exploit its potential but to ensure that it remained healthy.

Muralidhar Rao, the owner of a department store, said student-spend accounted for 20 per cent to 30 per cent of his business. On certain days when students were permitted to leave the campus, the figure shot up to 60 per cent. When schools had their vacation, there was a marked fall in business volumes.

Stating that there were about 30 members in the Association of English Speaking Schools of the Nilgiris district, Samjith Dhanarajan, Administrator, St Jude’s Public School, Kotagiri, said that during Founder’s Day or Sports Day of many schools, people from various parts of India and abroad came to the hill station.

On an average the number of boarders in each of the leading residential schools was about 800. He said that if better facilities were provided at Kotagiri it would help to relieve congestion in Udhagamandalam.

Helicopter services should be seriously considered, one informed source suggested. A travel agent, Nitin Chandrashekar, said some of the taxi operators depended mainly on educational tourism. Since many of the parents were regular visitors, hoteliers extended special concessions to them.

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