Bangalore, Jan 31: The Karnataka government has identified tourism as a priority sector, Chief Minister S M Krishna said. Inaugurating Connect-III, a private-public sector annual tourism development programme, he said for the last three years the state was giving tremendous boost to tourism-related activities in an attempt to make it the most-preferred destination in the country.
Stating that the absence of an international airport had so far been a bottleneck for tourism development in the state, he hoped that the new international airport project at Devanahalli would be completed soon. ''The airport will open the flood gates for development of not only tourism but other sectors in the state, too,'' he added.
Union Tourism Secretary Rathi Vinay Jha said India had great tourism potential. On an average, 550 million tourists, both foreign and domestic, travelled in the country.
She stressed the need for identifying more tourist attractions and development of infrastructure to exploit the sector for the economic development of the country. Bureau Report