04 Jun 2009
Uttarakhand Tourism will commence marketing campaigns for Rural Tourism projects in the state from July 2009. Disclosing their plans to market Rural Tourism projects in the state, Prakash Pant, Tourism Minister, Uttarakhand said that the state tourism department will join hands with private stakeholders and the travel trade to formulate packages around these projects and destinations in future.
“We want community-oriented tourism to develop in the state so that tourism can help in the overall improvement of the area, as well as contribute to the livelihood of the people of that area. We have so far identified and developed 13 such Rural Tourism projects in the state. All these 13 places are now ready with basic tourism facilities, like roads, home stay facilities etc. We will now start marketing these products extensively through our road shows, trade exhibitions etc.,” the Minister informed.
The Minister said that the endeavour was aimed at attracting hi-end travellers to Uttarakhand. “In spite of the increase in tourism footfalls into the state, we generally do not get hi-spending, top-end travellers due to several factors. Hence, our campaigns will now focus on improving the visibility of the state among these sections of travellers,” he added. Despite the global slowdown, Pant said that state tourism had registered growth in terms of both domestic and foreign travellers to the state. “There has been an increase of 15.9 per cent in the number of domestic tourists in 2008, while the number of foreign tourists has registered 18.6 per cent growth last year,” the Minister explained.
News Source: TravelBizMonitor