Karnataka government is planning to link all tourist destinations with better connectivity in the state. As part of this plan the state government is encouraging heli tourism and there will be at least 30 helicopters available for use, G Janardhana Reddy, minister for tourism and infrastructure development, said.
Delivering a key note address at the 9th annual tourism summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today, he said every district headquarter will have an airstrip soon. The government wants to involve private sector to develop tourism infrastructure in the state, he said.
“India need to emulate the policies of London, Berlin and other cities, which were developed into great cities by offering packages suitable to every budget traveller and integrating tourism promotion into overall development plans. Karnataka has already realised that infrastructure development and tourism go together and is taking steps to improve these sectors,” Reddy said.
The summit with the theme ‘Integrating tourism into mainstream development’ highlighted the potential of tourism industry in eradicating poverty in India. Speakers at the summit were unanimous that the industry can provide jobs for over 100 million people in India, which has about 300 million people living below poverty line. Despite being the largest provider of employment, this is one of the heavily taxed industry, the participants felt and urged the government to look into.
Speaking on the occasion, Maharaja of Mysore, H H Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, said, “The taxation for the hospitality industry should be rationalised as early as possible. Within India, Karnataka is one of the few states that has the highest tax rate on this industry. The entry tax on vehicles from other states needs to be reviewed or exempted for those coming from South India.”
In spite of having so much of diversity, Karnataka has not done much to attract tourists as the infrastructure is so poor here. Heritage tourism on the lines of Rajastan should be promoted in the state. Government has to look into the needs of different budget travellers. If these issues are addressed, tourism industry can earn more than what software industry is earning today in the state, he added.
Rajive Kaul, former president, CII, and chairman, CII Apex Council for Trade Fairs, said, “Indian tourism industry is attracting larger number of tourists and managing the infrastructure to serve them is one of the biggest challenges we are facing today.