Mysuru: “Budget allocated to promotion of Tourism in the State is negligible”, lamented Registrar University of Mysore Prof C Basavaraju on Monday.
He was speaking after inaugurating a three month “Comprehensive Tourist Guide Training Programme” organised by Department of Tourism Government of Karnataka jointly with University of Mysore at
Addressing the gathering, he said that Tourism is gaining momentum in the present millennium to such an extent that it stands second in generating income and employment opportunities across the world. Around 3.5% of the world population is comprised of international tourists and our government is also endeavoring for tourism to reach thetop spot. Over the years our government is encouraging various promotional activities and to inculcate and stress the significance of tourism in the state. However, the budget allotted is negligible.
Further he added that tourist guides should orient the tourists with importance and history adequately. Economic status of the country partly depends on the tourism activities. The government should allocate more fund to tourism promotion he recommended.
Deputy Director Department of Tourism Government of Karnataka H C Janardhan said that there is a growing demand for qualified tourist guides. Mysuru being a world-class tourist place, has a lot of scope for professionals in this field. Being the first batch we should bench mark the years for positive development.
Former Director Mahajana Tourism Development Institute, Dr K S Nagapathy said that the tourist guide job is well respected in foreign countries. China has a three year degree course in tourist guide managment, and 9.5 % of the world GDP is from Tourism. As far as Mysuru is considered, the tourism statistics reveals that the city has over 1000 crore business with almost 2. 5 lakh families depending on it. But the sorry state of affairs is that we have miserably failed to market it. I have also recommended that the VC, University of Mysore, Prof K S Rangappa to start at least a one year PG Course for Tourist Guides.
Speaking on the signature campaign against the rope way at Chamundi hills he said that the hill is spread over 3000 acres of land. Utilizing 100 acres for a cable car does not harm the environment, instead it will help reduce pollution as it can take 250 people at a time. Instead of opposing everything the environmentalists should strike a balance between development and environment. They can also carry out afforestation as a parallel activity to it.
