"The central government should invest in developing more facilities for tourists and continue to put in more effort on promoting sustainable and eco-friendly tourism,” said P J Varghese, who runs Tourist Desk, a tour operator based in Kochi.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday spoke of rolling out the phase two of the Incredible India campaign across the globe and of developing five tourism zones across the country.
Reacting to the Union Budget 2017 proposals for the sector, Varghese said the response to the Incredible India campaign has been enormous and has helped the tourism sector in Kerala.
He hoped that when the government rolls out phase two of the campaign, it will bring in more job opportunities and Kerala will not get left out.
Varghese, who has more than a quarter century of experience in the tourism sector, feels that the state has not tapped into the tourism opportunities in North Kerala. Much of the tourism plans are concentrated in the southern side of the state. We have to capitalize on the potential of developing a tourism hub connecting Kasaragod – Kannur – Wayanad to famous destinations like Coorg and Mangaluru in neighboring Karnataka.
'I am not sure about the success of a train service dedicated to tourism and religious destinations. It would be better if there was an option where tourists could get special quotas in regular trains,” he said.