Saptarshi Das, New Delhi
Tamil Nadu’s strength is in its “spiritual and heritage” tourism and the government is allocating funds in equal measures for revamping temples, mosques and churches to expand the sector in the state, tourism development corporation managing director Sandeep Nanduri said.
Speaking virtually during the one-day Hindustan Times Tourism Conclave, Nanduri confirmed that chief minister MK Stalin will soon launch the state tourism policy.
“Tamil Nadu’s strength is spiritual and heritage tourism. We have over 80,000 temples and out of these six are part of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) heritage sites. These (places) attract a lot of inbound tourists,” he said during the seminar titled ‘Fuelling Innovation in Tamil Nadu Tourism’.
“We consciously promote our temple tour packages and try to create good infrastructures in these temples. In the last couple of years, the government has also identified certain key temples and investment has already gone to upgrade these temples. The state is also spending on infrastructure of other religious places like dargahs and churches… right from Chennai and all the way to Kanyakumari,” Nanduri said.
Talking about the state tourism policy, Nanduri called for investors to consider Tamil Nadu as a “leading destination” for investments.
“Very soon the CM is also going to launch the tourism policy, which I can’t reveal now… but investors can look forward to Tamil Nadu as a leading destination for investments. We are also planning to promote the state as a coastal destination and with the support of the new policy, we are looking forward to a lot of public-private partnerships,” Nanduri added.
Nanduri said that the state was also trying to bolster tech based tourism. He added, “We are going to update our tourism app and we have recently upgraded and relaunched the website.”