Hyderabad: Safety of tourists, especially women, is a priority for the Telangana govt which announced plans to adopt and create an environment of ‘safe tourism’ in the state.
Under the new tourism policy, the govt would establish dedicated tourist police units and patrols in key tourist destinations. It also plans to implement women-friendly measures to ensure the safety of female tourists and leverage the tourism friendly index (TFI) for the state. It was also proposed to install CCTV surveillance at all tourist destinations.
Apart from developing and promoting new iconic projects in the state, it has been proposed to promote local tourist destinations like spiritual destinations, Buddhist spots, temple tourism, and other places. “The govt will encourage adoption of monuments by corporates for conservation of heritage buildings, forts, palaces, tombs and tourist attractions,” tourism minister Jupally Krishna Rao said on Tuesday.
Additionally, the govt plans to develop infrastructure to promote Godavari and Krishna river tourism by developing jetties and launch stations, water sports, houseboats, and organising river festivals on the lines of Venice water carnival. It will encourage waterfront development along the lakes in urban areas as weekend getaways with adventure activities, kids’ zones, and local retail outlets like the proposed Musi riverfront development project.
Helipads will be extensively developed in all special tourism areas. The govt will explore golf tourism potential in the state and target wellness and meditation centres at Buddhavanam, Nagarjunasagar, to attract Buddhist tourists throughout the year, the minister said.
For approvals and necessary clearances, the state govt proposed to set up a state tourism promotion board headed by the chief minister which will have ministers as members and the youth services and tourism department principal secretary as convenor. There will be another empowered committee with ministers for making important decisions required for the tourism sector in the state.
The committee will be chaired by the tourism minister with finance minister and industries minister will be its members. Other ministers will be invited based on the relevance of the subject. For implementation and to review progress, a state tourism promotion committee will be set up with various department heads led by the chief secretary. A committee at the district level will also be established.
