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Kerala Tourism is set to add around 100 unexplored destinations to the tourism map of the State, which already has 153 approved tourist destinations. The move will facilitate better access to these not-so-popular destinations for the tourists.
According to a senior official of Kerala Tourism, the growing domestic tourism has been exerting pressure on the existing destinations, prompting Kerala Tourism to develop more locales. The department has been collecting details of unexplored destinations in association with the Local Self-Government department and will soon announce the list, the official said.
‘Destination Challenge’
Titled ‘Destination Challenge’, an initiative to identify at least one destination under each local body, the project evoked good response from the LSGD and over 350 applications were received by the Tourism department. The State government has already sanctioned ₹50 crore to develop these unexplored destinations for tourists.
The Tourism department will provide 60% (subject to a maximum of ₹50 lakh) of the cost of each project. The local bodies should fund the rest of the project through plan grants, supplemented by own funds or any other funds, said a Tourism department officer. In turn, the local bodies can collect the revenue from the tourism project which should be utilised for the project’s proper upkeep. Although the department has received over 350 project proposals, it plans to develop around 100 destinations in the first phase, the official said.
The intention of the project is to explore the vast network of rivers and untouched biodiversity hotspots in the Western Ghats which is a repository of endemic, rare and endangered flora and fauna.
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