Karnataka tourism’s up in the air

Open any airline magazine and you will notice the stark difference between Karnataka and States where tourism is thriving. While States with a flourishing tourism industry with high foreign arrivals have multiple airports and connectivity within the State, Karnataka sorely lacks air connectivity amongst its various regions.

Maharashtra, which has the highest number of foreign tourist arrivals, has well-connected second and third airports in Pune and Nagpur. Tamil Nadu has two busy airports apart from Chennai — Coimbatore and Madurai. Assam has two apart from Guwahati — Jorhat and Dibrugarh. Mangaluru is the only city apart from Bengaluru with an international airport in Karnataka. But most of the air traffic originating from this coastal city is to Gulf countries, not tourist arrivals.

Karnataka is well endowed with superb wildlife, cascading waterfalls, impressive beaches, splendid monuments and exceptional architecture. The Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, the romantic rocks of Badami, the fine architecture at Hampi, the sloth bear sanctuary in Bellary, the hills of Kemmangundi, and the beaches of Karwar and Murdeshwar are outstanding tourist destinations. Tourist destinations south of Bengaluru — the tiger sanctuary at Bandipur and Nagarhole, the Mysuru palace, the Ranganthittu bird sanctuary and the temples of Belur, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola are relatively more popular because of connectivity.

The recently introduced UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme by the Centre, if implemented and put to good use by the State government, could enable Karnataka’s tourism industry to blossom. It potentially brings down the ticket price on one-hour flights to ₹2,500.

Nepal offers a fine model of small airplanes providing regional connectivity. More than 7,50,000 foreign tourists visited the tiny Himalayan country last year. Travellers arrive in Kathmandu and then hop on to a feeder airliner that takes them either to Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary airport which is the origin for trekking to the Himalayas. Some prefer to do the Annapurana circuit which is served by Pokhara airport while for those who prefer wildlife at Royal Chitwan, Bharathpur airport is their destination. Many regional airline companies offer several 20- to 30-minute flights at an affordable price.

Unfortunately, the tourism vision of the State government thus far has been a blur. The tourism ministry was an additional portfolio designated to the industry minister in the past; currently the IT-BT minister is also responsible for tourism. The previous government created a tourism master plan while the current minister’s immediate predecessor created a vision group. The master plan was a hatchet job and was rightly discarded. The report of the vision group was full of management jargon and gibberish with an embedded SWOT analysis.

With elections to the State assembly just months away, there is time only for the current government to introduce a robust tourism policy with a focus on regional connectivity by taking advantage of UDAN. The next government can certainly make Karnataka a go-to destination on India’s tourism map with a five-year master plan and execution strategy.

Only two cities in Karnataka have found their way to UDAN’s list — Mysuru and Bidar. At least three more — Bellary, Shivamoga and Gokarana — must be added immediately. The tourism industry warrants a minister solely responsible for developing infrastructure and promoting tourist destinations. The immense potential of the State must be fully exploited to create jobs for semi-skilled workers and boost infrastructure in coastal areas, and the Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions: this could well lead to industrialisation in the future.

HAL airport in Bengaluru must be reopened as a regional hub to connect cities and towns across the State. Also, the State government must incentivise small airlines to operate short-haul flights. There needs to be a sustained effort over the entire five-year term (of the next government) accompanied by a lumpsum budgetary allocation to achieve the goals of the sector.

The Karnataka Government must understand that lack of regional connectivity is hampering tourism. With UDAN, there is a golden opportunity to change that. Tourism will be a boon to job-seeking youngsters and can potentially bridge the development gap between various regions across the State.

The writer is a Bengaluru-based money manager