New tourism policy soon to attract investments: D K Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday said that Karnataka was planning to come out with a new tourism policy to attract investments into the industry.

Speaking at the event ‘Dakshin Bharat Utsav’ jointly organised by FKCCI and Karnataka Tourism Department, he said, “A good tourism policy will be able to attract industrialists and investments.

When industrialists do well, the government gets more revenue, more jobs are created for the people and the industry grows.”

“There are many representatives from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondichery and Telangana, I request them to share their experiences here. Karnataka is looking to develop its 300-km long coastline.

Bengaluru can become a tourist hub besides being the IT capital,” he added.

New tender for Skydeck soon

“Cubbon Park and Lal Bagh were traditional tourist places in Bengaluru. In order to create new tourist spots for new generation of people, we have planned a sky deck in Bengaluru. We will be inviting new tenders for the sky deck in the next 8-10 days,” he said.

“We are also planning to develop Brindavan on the lines of Disney land. Budgetary allocations have been made in the last budget for this,” he said. “The GST of 18% is killing the tourism industry.

If the businesses lose more than half the money to taxes they will not be motivated enough to invest more. It is important that the people and the industry raise these issues,” he said.

He urged the investors and industrialists in the tourism industry to submit their demands in writing to the government.

“We need you to walk with us in our journey to improve tourism in the state,” he urged.