Cabinet clears new tourism policy

It seeks to make Karnataka among the top three tourism States for domestic tourism in the country

Karnataka’s new tourism policy that will be in place till 2029 and seeks to increase the domestic tourist visits from about 28 crore to about 48 crore a year and foreign tourist visits from 4 lakh to 20 lakh received the approval of the State Cabinet on Monday.

“Currently, Karnataka does not even feature in the top five among foreign tourist arrivals, which we intend to break into over the next five years. The policy seeks to make Karnataka among the top three tourism States for domestic tourism in the country,” H. K. Patil told presspersons here in his post-Cabinet meeting.

According to data shared in the policy, tourism is set to play an important role in Karnataka becoming $1 trillion economy by 2032. The State attracts nearly 10% of the overall tourist visits in India, placing it fourth among the Indian States. The domestic tourist visit increased from 36.7 million in 2006 to 283.5 million in 2023. Foreign tourist arrival in 2024 was over 4.01 lakh.

The policy looks at 25 niche tourism themes to attract tourist into the State. While 50 adventure tourism places for land, air and water-based adventure activities will be developed across the State, motor vehicle tax exemption would be offered to first 200 caravans to be registered to promote caravan tourism.

Among other tourism themes to be promoted are golf, gastronomy tourism, cultural tourism, heritage tourism, coastal tourism, films, agriculture, education, medical, inland water, maritime, mining, spiritual, and sports.

A tourism analytics division would be established in the Tourism Department to focus on statistics and market research. The policy is expected to attract private investments and it will be facilitated by the Tourism Investment Facilitation Cell, which will be the nodal agency for enabling investment, its facilitation, and monitoring.

A Global Tourism Investors Meet is being planned to showcase the investment potential of Karnataka tourism.

A slew of incentives and concessions have been offered to investment in tourism sector and subsidies have been offered. Additional subsidy has been offered for hotel projects coming up in Kalyan Karnataka and Kittur Karnataka.

Motor vehicle tax reimbursements have been announced and domestic tariffs have been extended to water and electricity to homestays.

Published - October 28, 2024 10:22 pm IST