The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State to speed up tourism growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 18, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State to speed up tourism growth

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government will accord more priority to tourism to further accelerate the growth of the sector and make the State a world-class destination, Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said here on Sunday.

He was speaking after commissioning the heritage block and Sayahna, a garden café, of Hotel Mascot, flagship property of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC).

Mr. Balakrishnan said the government had allocated Rs. 112 crore for the tourism sector in this year’s budget. Projects estimated at Rs. 138 crore funded under various Central schemes, including the tsunami rehabilitation programme, were being implemented this year. It was the first time in the State that tourism projects with such investments were being implemented.

The Minister said instructions had been given to complete the projects in a time-bound manner. “The tourism sector of the State is on a growth path and the government will extend all support to retain the growth achieved by the tourism sector,” he said.

The foreign tourist arrivals to the State had shown an increase of 20 per cent last year as against the national average of 13 per cent.

The earnings from the tourism sector had increased by 25 per cent from the previous year’s.

Profit

He said the KTDC had made a profit of Rs. 7 crore each last two years. The public sector undertaking had shown that it could give competition to the private sector with good service, management and cooperation of the staff.

“While the KTDC had achieved profit, some of the units are yet to rise to the occasion. The government had instructed the KTDC to convert all its 70-odd units across the State into profit-making centres within the next two years,” he said.

The Minister said the coming Kerala Travel Mart, Volvo Ocean Race and Grand Kerala Shopping Festival would give a big impetus to the tourism sector and attract more tourists.

KTDC Chairman Cherian Philip; Director of Tourism M. Shivasankar; Managing Director of KTDC K.G. Mohanlal; Director of KTDC M.P. Achuthan; and Selvy Mathews, councillor; spoke.

The Minister distributed prizes to the children of KTDC employees who emerged on top in the examinations.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala