The Karnataka Tourism Department is planning to invite express of interest to promote helicopter and cruise tourism. The department is also planning to develop its chains of restaurants across the state in collaboration with private players.
In an interactive session at the 7th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas event at Chennai, Viswanatha Reddy, director, KTD, said the state helicopter tourism was proposed for Mangalore and Hospet. The department had identified Mangalore, Karwar and its coasts, which would have casinos, bars and so on for cruise tourism. He said 14 more helipads would be set up soon in addition to the present 23.
Besides, the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation was offering restaurants in Mysore, Coorg, Hampi and Srirangapatnam for public-private partnership.
Reddy added that, last year, Karnataka attracted 0.6 million international and 27 million domestic tourists.
Pointing out that medical tourism offered greater scope for investment, he said that while a regular tourist spent $114 a day, those who are coming for medical treatment spent on an average of $ 324. Meanwhile, to encourage non-resident Indians to invest in social investments in Karnataka, the state government has established the 'NRI Forum of Karnataka' which would act as a single referral point for NRIs.
Ganesh Karnik, deputy chairman, NRI Forum said it would act as a single referral point for NRIs to address all the problems and suggestions pertaining to NRIs. It would also facilitate knowledge transfer and attract social investments in the field of education and healthcare.
Karnik added that, to encourage NRI support for primary education, the state government has launched a school adoption initiative which would facilitate NRI investments in education for rural areas, he added. He further added the state government has identified four clusters for investments in various sector like power, automobiles, IT, agriculture and its allied products.
The five clusters include Bidar-Bangalore via Chitradurga, Tumkur-Honnavar via Shimoga, Chitradurga-Mangalore via Shimago-Udupi and Bangalore-Belgaum via Davangere-Hubli. However, he did not comment about the investment expected in the clusters.