INDIA: In Goa, Two Tamil Nadu Tourists Drown While Taking Photos

In separate accidents, two tourists died while clicking photographs in Baga and Sinquerim.

Police identified the victims as Dinesh Kumar Ranganatha, 28, and Sashikumar Vasan, 33, both from Tamil Nadu.

The deaths happened five days after five youths from Akola, Maharshtra, met a watery grave off Calangute.

Calangute PI Jivba Dalvi said a group of eight tourists from Mangaluru and Tamil Nadu had come to Baga beach on Saturday evening.

Three of them crossed the Baga creek and reached the rocky area.

As one of them was taking photograph along with the others, a strong wave pulled them inside. While two of them managed to come out, the third one Ranganathan from Vellore was swept away by the wave.

They were clicking pics when wave hit.

In the second incident, four tourists from Tamil Nadu went to Sinquerim, Candolim, for sunrise around 7 am.

They went to a rocky area below Fort Aguada to take photographs. One of them started clicking photographs of his three friends seated on the rocks. Suddenly, a huge wave came and washed one of them away.

Bodies of both the tourists were fished out later and sent to the GMC for postmortem.

Two days ago, tourism minister Manohar Azgaonkar held a meeting with officials wherein he called for steps to be taken to create awareness among beach tourists.

The tourism department is also exploring the option of introducing 24 x7 beach patrolling.

Drishti Marine, the lifeguard agency, had earlier said that with the onset of the monsoon all beaches in the state have been shut for swimming and water sports activities since June 8, 2018, with red flags put up on the beaches.

The restrictions will continue till September.

Post mortem examinations in both cases have been conducted and the bodies will be handed over to their relatives soon, the police official said.

This comes just a week after three tourists, including a police constable and his brother, from Akola in Maharashtra drowned in the Arabian Sea at Goa’s famous Calangute beach near Panaji.

On June 11, a group of 14 tourists from Akola had arrived in Goa by a train around 4 am, Calangute police inspector Jivba Dalvi said.

Despite specific signages that were put up along the shoreline warning people against venturing into the sea, the group went in at 6am.

Five of the tourists got pulled into the waters due to the strong undercurrents, of which three drowned while two others managed to swim to the shore, police said quoting eyewitnesses.


Tourism Observer

INDIA: Kerala Tourism Department Attracts More Tourists From Hindi Speaking States.

Migrants from the Hindi speaking states in the country who work in Kerala, God’s Own Country is exactly what the Gulf is for the Keralites.

Buoyed by the increase in domestic tourism, the state Tourism Department has decided to tap the potential of Hindi speaking states by holding aggressive promotional campaigns migrant heartlands.

According to the statistics available with the Tourism Department, over 1.46 crore domestic tourists have visited the state in 2017, recording the highest number of domestic tourist arrivals in the past nine-year period.

This is with the number posting an 11.39 per cent rise compared with the figures of 1.31 crore in 2016.

Kerala constituted around 62.93 per cent of the total domestic tourist traffic while Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra together contributed around 18.76 per cent and the remaining 18.31 was the share from other North Indian states.

The Tourism department has decided to hold road shows and other promotional campaigns in cities like Kolkata, Patna and Ranchi, said Tourism Director P Bala Kiran.

The domestic tourism has been registering a robust growth in Kerala over the years with a 10.94 per cent rise in 2017 compared with the figures of last year.

Foreign tourist arrival to the state saw only 5.15 per cent growth during the year 2017, compared with the figures of the previous year.

So, the department has decided to give more thrust to the domestic tourism sector as well in order to increase the domestic arrival by 50 per cent in the next five years.

In order to attract more young domestic tourists to Kerala, the department has also plans to boost the potential of adventure tourism.

Further, the cleanliness of the tourist spots will be ensured, apart from ensuring the safety and protection of the tourists, said officials.

The department has been spending around 60 per cent of the fund set aside for the marketing in the domestic tourism promotion and 40 per cent for the promotion of the state in international venues.


Tourism Observer

INDIA: Unique Idea To Stop Poaching At Pench National Park

Located at a distance of around 70km from Nagpur, the tiger reserve — which was declared as India's 25th reserve in 1999 — has a 257.26 sq km core area bordering Madhya Pradesh and a 483.96 sq km buffer zone. It also has an eco-tourism area.

The state forest department is trying to kill two birds with one stone. To deter poaching, illegal tree felling and grazing in the buffer zone of the Pench wildlife sanctuary, the authorities have begun a unique experiment where tourism and increased footfalls would be used to deter intrusions into the protected areas.

On an experimental basis, the authorities would allow tourists to take part in guided foot patrolling, machan watch tourism (during summers) and vehicle patrolling. The revenue earned from the initiative would be ploughed back into the local community from where guides would also be selected, so that they are involved in the conservation effort and collude with poachers.

"This would act as a protection mechanism against poaching. Poachers would not enter the forest areas due to the presence of people. It will also provide employment for the locals," MS Reddy, chief conservator of forests and field director of the Pench Tiger Project, told dna, adding that this was the first time that the experiment was being tried out in Maharashtra.

Otherwise, night time movement is not allowed in the forest. "We do not have sufficient vehicles and staff. So, we are encouraging more people to come to the area," Reddy said, adding that "people will enjoy moving around in the forest at night as it would enable them to witness nocturnal life."

The pilot project will be undertaken in the Nagalwadi range, which is part of the buffer zone of the tiger project. This range, coupled with the Pavni range, together cover 202 sq km area of the buffer zone, and sees illegal tree felling, grazing of animals and poaching. The Nagalwadi range was handed over to the reserve from the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) in April, 2015.

Located at a distance of around 70km from Nagpur, the tiger reserve — which was declared as India's 25th reserve in 1999 — has a 257.26 sq km core area bordering Madhya Pradesh and a 483.96 sq km buffer zone. It also has an eco-tourism area.

The reserve — which has 21 tigers, 33 species of mammals, over 160 bird species, reptiles, fishes and amphibians — is an important corridor between the forest areas of Madhya Pradesh (Pench Tiger Reserve) and Nagzira-Navegaon and Tadoba- Andhari Tiger Reserves in Maharashtra.

Patrolling on foot in the jungles during the night and afternoon will be a unique experience for tourists and enable them to see bio-diversity as against travelling by vehicle in forest areas, wherein they can sight only big animals. The tourists will be accompanied by forest guards and guides on these trails.

The machans in the forests are otherwise used once a year for wildlife counting. Now, tourists would be able to use them seven times a month, i.e. during full moon nights and three days before and after it to sight animals from February 15 to June 15. Tourists will also be able to travel with forest guards in vehicles at night and the wee hours of the morning for patrolling.

However, to prevent poachers from infiltrating as tourists and prevent unruly behavior, the department has taken a series of measures like restricting numbers, allowing small batches, taking identity proofs, making it mandatory for visitors to register at least four days in advance and giving priority to people and NGOs working for conservation.

The use of liquor, narcotics, cigarettes, tobacco and search lights, gutkha, mobiles will also be banned, though binoculars would be allowed.

"Our forest guards will accompany them, which will prevent activities like drinking. Vehicles will also be checked," said Reddy.

Part of the funds generated will be given to the guides, who will be locals, while the remaining amount will be ploughed back into the local gram samiti and the Pench Tiger Conservation Foundation.

INDIA: Maharashtra's New Tourism Strategy To Generate 1 Million Jobs

Boosting skill development in tourism by developing world-class institutes including a university for travel and culture, tourism around themes like forts, culinary tourism and monthly stipends for registered tourist guides.

These are among the highlights of the state government's 'Consultation Paper on Tourism Policy- 2016'. The new tourism policy, open for stakeholders suggestions before final cabinet approval, aims at developing a strategy for creating 1 million jobs and attracting investments of Rs 30,000 crore in five years.

Maharashtra leads India in foreign tourist arrivals (20.8%) and is among the leading states for domestic tourist visits (7.2%). The policy aims at achieving a sectorial growth of 10% per annum.

"We are trying our best to boost investment in tourism infrastructure," noted Valsa Nair Singh, principal secretary (tourism and culture), adding they were promoting tourism entrepreneurship within the state. Various verticals like agro-tourism will facilitate sectorial growth.

The paper lays special focus on rural and agriculture tourism to cover sectors like wine (Nashik), mango (Ratnagiri) and oranges (Nagpur) and development of caravan tourism and theme tourism including fort circuits, beach, heritage, religious, culinary, coastal and medical tourism.

However, according to tourism department insiders, what ails the sector is not lack of grand planning, but poor implementation of these plans on ground. There have been several projects which have been announced over the years with lot of hoopla, but have not seen the light of the day.

The Rs4,000 crore London's eye project plan near Gorai, Disneyland type park in Konkan, floating hotel near Bandra-Kurla Complex, seaplane services between Girgaum Chowpatty to Juhu airport, Times Square (New York) like entertainment zone near Churchgate are among classic examples of projects which are yet to start.

"Most of the draft is nothing but the repetition of earlier plans announced. It all depends on how serious the state government is in promoting tourism" said a senior tourism department official.

However, Nair Singh said that "whatever has been put in the paper are implementable things."
Features

A smart ticketing system covering major tourist destinations, hotel stays, air and surface travel.
Mobile apps for tourist information and safety
Single-window clearance for hospitality industry and live events
A Maharashtra Tourism Investor Facilitation Cell and launch of a Public Private Partnership (PPP) transaction advisory cell
The policy lays down classification of tourism zones, and grants incentives.

INDIA: Eco-tourism Policy For Maharashtra

Maharashtra government will be framing an eco-tourism policy with emphasis on employing the local youth and the forest conservation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today.Fadnavis was addressing valedictory programme of a workshop on promotion of eco-tourism and community nature conservation at Tadoba tiger reserve.

The government had made available a fund of Rs 100 crore and the policy would come out within two months, he said. ”We are trying to bring industry to the Gadchiroli district and develop the city to create more employment opportunities,” he said.