As representatives from global travel industry came down to Dubai to attend the Arabian Travel Mart concluded recently, the India Pavilion was much in news for the buzzing footfall and attendance of various states and other travel companies. Enjoying a premium position and gathering maximum eyeballs was the booth of Karnataka Tourism, which was headed by Shri H.T. Ratnaka, Adviser – Tourism and Hospitality, Karnataka. Here is what he shared with BOTT.
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Attending the annually held ATM in Dubai is a ritual for many people in the travel trade and no different for us too. The India pavilion, like always, was buzzing with activity and footfall as numerous exhibitors and visitors came forward to interact with the representatives of the Indian travel trade present at the venue. Enjoying a premium position, right at the beginning with an attractive booth design, the Karnataka Tourism stand was much in news not just for its look but also for the newsy bits being shared by Shri H.T. Ratnaka, Adviser – Tourism and Hospitality, Karnataka Tourism.
The state has been actively promoting its tourism across various national and international forums for more than a decade now. Simultaneously, it has also been busy in developing and boosting the tourism infrastructure in Karnataka – more hotels, better roads, improving connectivity, managing traffic and more. “For almost 12 years Karnataka was standing at the 9th position in India in terms of inbound traffic – both domestic and international. However, we have slowly inched our way to position no.2 or no.3. Our vision plan for 2022 is to become the no.1 state in India getting maximum footfalls. Meanwhile, we are enjoying the healthy competition and promoting Karnataka as ‘One State Many Worlds’. We are extensively promoting the sites of Hampi and Pattadakal in our state and have received good response at these heritage sites so far,” he shares.
Actively involved in promoting tourism in its region, the state tourism board participates in almost 15 domestic events and 8 – 10 international events every year. They also come out with a theme based campaign every year, targeting various segments of the society. With strong infrastructure in place supplemented by a tourism policy judiciously being followed for last 20 years, Karnataka seems determined to achieve its aim of getting maximum inbound numbers in India.
“We have formed a Karnataka Tourism Society, which is a collaboration of the travel trade in the state and the government to jointly host the Karnataka Tourism Travel Expo from August 25 – 27 in Bengaluru this year. A B2B event, this is the first of its kind ever being hosted in the region and around 500 buyers have already been finalized for the event,” he concluded.
