NEW DELHI, Jan 13 (Bernama) — The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) wants to tap Malaysian tourism promotion expertise to fashion its ambitious proposed Southern India Tourism Grid to woo more visitors to the south of the country.
At least four state governments — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — and the union territory of Pondicherry are planning to jointly promote tourism to give tourists an ideal package when visiting southern India.
To create the southern circuit, similar to the northern Indian Golden Triangle comprising Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, these states signed a joint declaration with CII last August — and want Malaysia to be a partner of their project.
“Malaysia has done a phenomenal job in terms of tourism. We can learn from them in terms of branding, eco-tourism, connectivity and infrastructure. We want them to be a partner,” CII Hospitality and Tourism Sub-Committee chairman Navas Meeran told Bernama.
Besides replicating the Malaysian model, Meeran said, a partnership with Malaysia would also help boost tourism between both countries, especially in increasing tourist traffic flow from southern India to Malaysia and vice-versa.
“Tourism Malaysia successfully branded Malaysia as a favourite tourist destination last year. We can link the southern circuit to Malaysia. There is a lot of synergy that we can tap,” he said.
Last year, almost 400,000 Indians visited Malaysia, registering the high target set by the Tourism Ministry for 2007, and until September Indians spent RM724.7 million during their stay in Malaysia.
Under the proposed integrated tourism grid, the five partners would share resources, standardise taxation and jointly develop human resource and physical infrastructure — all aimed at easing the movement of tourists from one state to another.
The aim of the southern grid is to promote the region — home to nearly 230 million people and bestowed with numerous architectural marvels — stretching from the coastline of Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka to Kerala and offering domestic and foreign travellers a multi-faceted experience.