TN govt seeks to give a boost to tourism

TN govt seeks to give a boost to tourism

Monday, February 21, 2005 (Chennai):

In the wake of the tsunami that struck on December 26, the Tamil Nadu government's tourism department has now started a campaign to give a boost to the state's tourist inflow.

Industry obviously welcomes these initiatives, but the question being asked is if the move has come too late in the day.

This is the height of tourist season in Chennai, but there are no signs of any shoppers on the city's streets. In spite of the setback, traders here have managed to re-open for business. But there are no takers.

"Nobody has come. Only about 10 per cent of the tourists are here. Only youngsters come. They may have come without telling people at home. Families don't come. We don't get any business," said a trader.

Tourist inflow drops

A few days after the tsunami, inbound tourist traffic dropped by almost 70 per cent. For the tourism industry, the crisis couldn't have come at a worse time.

While the process of recovery has begun, the industry feels that the government should have launched reassurance measures on a larger scale and much sooner.

"We should have told the travel industry, the tourism sector and the traveling public whether it is safe or not three-four days after the tsunami. Unfortunately, we failed to do that. The bouncing back programme has not been intense," said N R Kumarasamy, Chairman, TAAI.

Massive destruction

But the cameras were all pointed in the direction of the devastation. There was the threat of an epidemic and large-scale destruction.

The administration says people would not have believed them if they had said everything is fine.

"The tsunami damage was so massive and so devastating, that there was no point in saying that everything was normal. As a matter of conscious strategy, we decided to keep quiet," Shanktikantha Das, Tourism Commissioner, Tamil Nadu.

Companies with deep pockets have been able to tide over the crisis. So the government's initiatives need to really touch the smaller players, who can't afford this waiting game.

from ndtv.com