While the world was preoccupied last week with the London bombings, a group of vocal non-governmental organisations in India last week warned that they do not intend to lose sight of a parallel form of terrorism taking place in the Asia-Pacific region.
Although the NGOs were focussed on Indian issues, they warned that forests, heritage, wildlife and tribal lands are being terrorised regionwide by an “unholy trinity” of politicians, bureaucrats and investors in the name of economic and tourism development.
Convening under the aegis of the Bangalore-based NGO Equations, the grouping of environmentalists, academics, social workers and other activists said that deregulation and privatisation of Indian tourism would extract a huge price on what’s left of the country’s forest cover, water and other natural resources.
The Indian government has embarked upon a tourism marketing campaign under the slogan “Incredible India". But activist Panduranga Hegde of the Appiko Movement said: “We now have an opportunity to see to what extent Incredible India is credible.”
India’s economic liberalisation programme is leading to intense competition among states and transport and hotel sectors to attract both foreign and domestic visitors. Many of the states see their national parks, wildlife reserves and heritage areas as being ideal for ecotourism.
More: bangkokpost.com
Related Travel Information
The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation today said it will soon launch air safari and helicopter service between various tourist destinations in the state.
The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Tourism Development Corporation chaired by State Minister for Tourism Hassan Mir here, an official spokesman said.
Although it was not clear whether the air safari and helicopter services would be available for the Amarnath pilgrims, last year the government had introduced helicopter service for the pilgrims from Srinagar and Baltal to the holy cave, located at a height of 3,880 metres in South Kashmir.
More: outlookindia.com
The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation today said it will soon launch air safari and helicopter service between various tourist destinations in the state.
The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Tourism Development Corporation chaired by State Minister for Tourism Hassan Mir here, an official spokesman said.
Although it was not clear whether the air safari and helicopter services would be available for the Amarnath pilgrims, last year the government had introduced helicopter service for the pilgrims from Srinagar and Baltal to the holy cave, located at a height of 3,880 metres in South Kashmir.
The decision
There is immense potential of developing tourism in Kerala and the State should make full use of it, the Union Minister of State for Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs, Ms Suryakantha Patil said on Monday.
Inaugurating a seminar "Coalition government - its merit and demerits," organised by the Nehru Peace Foundation, she said that Kerala could follow the example of Singapore, a tiny nation, which had taken tourism development to a high level.
"Kerala can become the richest State in the country, if it taps the tourism potential available to the maximum," she said, adding that spices, coconut and the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ramesh Nath Pandey, has said that negative coverage of Nepal in media has affected the tourism industry of the country.
He said this while inaugurating the Travel Media Workshop for South Asia Sub-regional Travel Writers jointly organised by Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in association with World Tourism Organization in Kathmandu Friday. Travel writers from Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Bhutan are participating in the workshop.
Highlighting the importance of information as power, minister Pandey said that tourism industry is vulnerable to external factors. “We witnessed a sharp downturn in tourist flows after 9/11. Information
More than 200 leisure and tourism officials and experts from all over the world have reached a consensus on lake conservation and tourism development at the China International Lake Tourism Forum which was concluded Sunday in this capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province.
According to the consensus that was reached on Saturday evening, lakes are important and irreplaceable resources for mankind. Their ecosystem is comparatively fragile and not renewable. Lakes are also an important resource for leisure and tourism. Civilized and "green" tourism should be advocated so as to minimize negative influence on the environment.
