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Tourism, Recreation and Karnataka
Written By silkboard - 16 March, 2010
Bangalore Praja Tourism Announcement suggestion KSTDC
Talking about 'quality of life', tourism and recreation is another area where we all expect certain standards of amenities and infrastructure. Further, tourism is known to be an excellent way of boosting internal economy. Across states of India, Karnataka today ranks 4th on domestic tourism, and 5th on international tourist arrivals.
Even though a lot of work has been done by sate government over last 5-6 years (roads to destinations, information, visit Karnataka campaign etc), things can always be better. A good ranking relative to other states of India should not mean much, the standards could be better when judged on absolute terms. Also, there does not seem to be much active citizen involvement, feedback and participation in development and planning of tourism infrastructure and campaigns.
I was wondering if we can include tourism and recreation from review, citizen reports in amenities, suggestions and fact based complaints perspective on Praja.in website. Since a lot of us experience tourism in our state pretty regularly, we should have a lot to contribute in this area.
As always, whether we will be able to get in and connect with tourism ministry or not will depend on the critical mass and willingness of users of this website. But there is no harm in trying to create a sub-community here for promoting and tracking the performance of Karnataka state tourism development corporation and state tourism minister via reports and suggestions from the ground.
We will need a new category for such posts, and will also require easier way of adding pictures. Techs and Admins will take a note and do the needful if there is enough interest in starting this new subject here.
[Note: Pic from Kudremukh National Park by RahulR @ flickr]
COMMENTS
silkboard - 16 March, 2010 - 13:24
http://kstdc.nic.in is listed on NIC directory, the site does not open. And the new website built by KSTDC (www.karnatakatourism.org) is listed as an attack page and is blocked by my PC security software!
How exactly do people find tourism related information from state government over Internet?
Pilikula-Mangalore, A great spot
Naveen - 16 March, 2010 - 16:52
Just visited Pilikula in Mangalore - excellent new spot for tourists & for picnics. The area includes a zoo, a spotlessly clean lake with greens around, a new golf course & many cultural sports activities nearby.
Arun - 17 March, 2010 - 02:40
Tremendous potential for tourism in Kar. But then, it is the Kar Govt that runs it. Website apart, many of the destinations lack basic amenities. Govt is promoting locations with photographs of the CM and Tourism Minister without working out any details.
Tourism, by and large is at the mercy of unorganised private travel agents.
A proposal for Heritage Walk path in Mysore was given. Nothing has materialised till date.
Ravi_D - 17 March, 2010 - 03:46
If development means cutting down forests, selling off prestine sites to private enterprises to build their own enclave, finding broken beer bottles at the foot of every waterfall, and plastic sacks, bottles and garbage floating in every river and on every hill you encounter (and many other destructive things I'm sure you are aware of), I just don't want it. I'd rather spend the money to keep poachers, loggers, miners (and even the general public to some degree) as far as possible from such places!
On the other hand, if development means keeping the heritage intact, not moving a single stone in whatever remote areas we are left with, making what is available better (roads, amenities), and strictly regulating destructive behavior in whatever form or fashion, I'm all for it.
Knowing how well our people and authorities behave and act, I'd rather live with places that are real hard to access but are left clean & natural, and hope to leave it for our kids to improve on. Risking 'development' as we think and know today is just an open invite to clean house. We have already snatched quite a lot from our kids. Be careful what you wish for here!!!!
Hope those who had the opportunity to travel can relate to what I'm talking here. It's insane what happens in many of our 'tourist spots'. Sorry for the rant here, but my heart just breaks down every time I see mother nature abused this way.
Ravi_D - 19 March, 2010 - 11:09
True, it sounded shortsighted... I went back to read it once again to be sure! Frustration really shows.
Read again though. I was trying to explain the type of 'development' we don't want, and the type we need. Without proper planning, regulation, education and enforcement, I'm just too afraid we might end up loosing whatever there is left. I think we should make preserving what we have our first priority.
That apart, it certainly is a good idea to start reporting and have a lively debate here on Praja (the topic of your first entry). Looking forward to it.
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