The State’s liquor policy and the pathetic state of its roads occupied centre stage on the second day of the Kerala Travel Mart here.
While tour operators shared their concerns of the fallout of liquor policy on tourism, foreign delegates took pot-shots at what they regarded as apology for roads. A German tour operator said that there were no gutters on the roads, just islands of road among gutters.
The foreign delegates also called for immediate steps to put an end to red-tapism. They said that formalities, which got completed in a matter of minutes in other countries, lasted even after the tourists completed their trip and returned. Filling of forms came in for scathing criticism as the sheer ineptitude to digitally store the data in filled-up forms.
Need for promoting real Ayurveda was also highlighted by the delegates. They also raised the need for women therapists, doctors and guides for women tourists.
E.M. Mujeeb who moderated the session observed that the entry of houseboats propelled the State’s tourism potential to the global attention. Public-private participation is behind the growth of the tourism sector. Hailing the role played by North Indian tour operators in promoting State’s tourism, Mr. Najeeb said that the industry accounted for 14 lakh direct employments and almost ten lakh indirect jobs.
He said that while the government spent between Rs. 70 crore and Rs. 100 crore for the marketing of Kerala tourism, the private sector was shelling out about Rs. 1,000 crore towards it. While expressing apprehension over the new liquor policy, Mr. Najeeb was optimistic of finding a solution. The eighth edition of KTM will end on Saturday at 6 p.m. It will be open to the public for free from 12 noon on the last day.
