The brightly-lit Mysuru palace and the greenery of Kodagu dot tourism brochures of Karnataka.
The crouching tiger in Nagarahole vies for prominence along with the architectural magnificence of Hampi. However, you would be hard-pressed to spot Malik-e-Maidan, the world’s largest medieval cannon, or the 650-year-old Bidar Fort.
This may be changing slowly, and the monuments of north Karnataka may finally get their due.
The Karnataka Tourism Forum will organise a one-day meet at Lalit Ashok on January 21 here in an attempt to promote and get tour operators from the city involved in the region.
“Apart from familiarising the tour operators with north Karnataka, we will also look for investments in the tourism sector there,” said C.B. Ramkumar, president of the forum.
The meet will focus on the neglected areas of the region, including forts of Chitradurga and mausoleums in Bidar and Kalaburagi.
The pitch, he said, was to promote the region as a “historical, cultural destination” where the architecture of the Deccani kings comes alive with a smattering of arts and crafts such as Bidri works.
According to officials of the Tourism Department, nearly 60 per cent of the publicity funds now focus on the northern region.
Officials estimate, at present, that just around 30 per cent of the nearly 98 lakh tourists in the State visit north Karnataka, the majority of whom go to Hampi and Pattadakal. “International marketing is not done owing to issues of accommodation and air connectivity.
When these are set up, we will start to see huge inflows into the region,” said Arvind Jadhav, Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka Tourism.
However, he said, the awareness about tourism attractions of the region was high in Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai, which are geographically closer to the region than the State capital, Bengaluru.
Tourism forum to hold meet to promote region as ‘historical, cultural destination’
