Tourism Policy

Summary

The Karnataka government's tourism policy aims to exponentially enhance the state's tourism potential, making it India's leading destination by 2016-17. The policy focuses on brand positioning, customer-centric strategies, and stakeholder involvement to ensure a high-quality, engaging experience for tourists. It also emphasizes diversifying markets, promoting homestays, improving infrastructure, and developing new tourism products, with incentives and support for growth and sustainability.

Takeaways

• 🌏 Karnataka aims to be a leading tourism destination in India by leveraging its diverse cultures, landscapes, and heritage.
• 📈 The state government has introduced a tourism policy with a mission to enhance and tap the tourism potential of Karnataka for economic growth.
• 💼 The vision is to make tourism a principal economic activity, generating revenue and employment, and being among the top two tourism destinations in India by 2016-17.
• 🏨 The policy emphasizes the importance of providing cost-effective accommodation and promoting innovative homestay schemes, for which Karnataka is a pioneer.
• 🛣️ There is a focus on improving road connectivity and developing tourist destinations and circuits to enhance the touring experience.
• 🏞️ The policy recognizes the need for diversifying the principal source market for both foreign and domestic tourists to spread economic benefits.
• 🏛️ Heritage tourism, homestays, and cultural experiences are highlighted as key areas for development to attract tourists.
• 👥 The policy encourages public-private partnerships to drive investments into destination-creating projects and regular tourism infrastructure.
• 📊 The policy includes actionable plans with success criteria and key performance indicators (KPIs) for measurable and monitored progress.
• 🏆 Incentives and concessions are offered by the government to facilitate tourism development, including tax benefits and investment subsidies.
• 🌱 The policy aims for sustainable development, growth, and governance in tourism, ensuring long-term benefits for the community and environment.

Q & A

What is the main goal of the Karnataka tourism policy?

The main goal of the Karnataka tourism policy is to exponentially enhance and tap the tourism potential of Karnataka, making it one of the top two tourism destinations in India by 2016-17.

How does the Karnataka government plan to ensure a leisure experience that is engaging and valuable for tourists?

The government plans to ensure an engaging and valuable leisure experience by coordinating efforts in an effective, efficient, and outcome-based manner, focusing on customer satisfaction and providing services that are in line with the values of Punniyakoti.

What vision does the Karnataka tourism policy have for the state's economic activity?

The vision is to make tourism the principal and largest economic activity in Karnataka, serving as an employer, revenue generator, and engine of growth.

What is the significance of 'Punniyakoti' in the context of Karnataka's tourism policy?

Punniyakoti represents the values enshrined in Karnataka's culture and is used as a hallmark to ensure hospitality and quality services for both foreign and domestic tourists.

How does the policy aim to create an enabling condition for Karnataka to become India's leading tourism destination?

The policy aims to create an enabling condition by focusing on customer-centric brand strategy, positioning, and source marketing, as well as involving all relevant stakeholders to disperse growth across the state.

What institutional framework is being created to oversee and execute the tourism policy?

The institutional framework includes integrated inter-ministerial and interdepartmental mechanisms to realize policy targets and ensure smooth implementation, covering people, processes, and real-time MIS for sustainable development, growth, and governance.

How does the policy plan to tap into the full potential of employment, revenue generation, and growth prospects of tourism in Karnataka?

The policy plans to tap into these potentials by creating public/private partnerships (PPP) that drive massive investments into destination-creating projects and regular projects through appropriate structuring and innovative financing.

What are some of the strategic thrusts of the Karnataka tourism policy?

The strategic thrusts include diversifying the principal source market for tourists, addressing the shortage of cost-effective accommodation, promoting innovative homestay schemes, improving road connectivity, and developing new tourism products.

What incentives and concessions has the government offered to support the tourism policy?

The government has offered incentives and concessions such as减免 stamp duty, registration charges, conversion fee, entertainment tax, and investment subsidy.

How does the policy address the development of tourism products and services in Karnataka?

The policy addresses this by promoting new tourism products, improving existing ones, and focusing on quality manpower development, promotion, publicity, and streamlining procedures.

What are some of the key areas of focus in the tourism policy of Karnataka?

Key areas of focus include standardization and classification, cultural heritage tourism, homestays, bangla tourism, public accommodation, exhibition and convention complexes, theme and entertainment parks, cruise tourism, ecotourism, health and wellness tourism, adventure tourism, and tourism education.