Plans Afoot To Hardsell South As Common Tourism Package

Four states set for a key meet in Hyderabad on June 5

Four southern states are coming together in a tourism initiative that will see them promoting southern India as a single destination.

The move taken at the initiative of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, is expected to create synergies in marketing the southern India region, which already attracts 20 per cent of the total international tourist flow into the country.

Tourism ministers from Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, along with their tourism secretaries and managing directors of respective tourism corporations are meeting in Hyderabad on June 5.

The Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshwadeep islands have also been included in this proposed holistic plan to market southern India as a single tourist destination.

The one-day meeting between the tourism ministers proposes to explore ways to create a unified brand image for the four southern states and create an unique tourism circuit that would cover the best tourist destinations of the four states.

G S Rao, the officer on special duty, National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Hyderabad, told Business Standard: