As a prelude to the Ministry of Tourism’s ‘Land of Pi’ campaign, the Tourism Department plans to conduct a competition based on the Life of Pi at the Heritage Car Rally from Chennai to Puducherry, Director of Tourism A.S. Sivakumar told The-Hindu .
Questionnaire on Life of Pi
On the day, visitors to the heritage car exhibition on Beach Road, which will be from 4 pm to 8 pm, will be given a questionnaire with 10 questions on the Life of Pi.
They will then collect the results and 10 people will win a Rs. 1000-voucher for a meal at Seagulls Restaurant.
The Land of Pi campaign is an initiative by the Ministry of Tourism to promote tourism in India through the movie Life of Pi.
Tie-in with creative agency
The Puducherry government, along with the creative agency McCann Erickson, will be designing posters, T-shirts, jingles and video clips that showcase Puducherry as the Land of Pi.
The posters and other materials will be printed in a number of languages, including French, German and Chinese.
There will also be a China-Puducherry tour exchange, details of which will be announced later.
Additionally, they will also be placing vinyl miniatures of a boat with a tiger and a little boy with a turban at various locations, like the airport and the Chunnambar Boat House, Mr. Sivakumar said.
The Government of Puducherry had currently not budgeted for any major projects in the Land of Pi campaign, so they were waiting for a while before making any drastic announcements. The Government of India wanted to have the campaign in full swing within the next six months, before the memory of the movie went out of the public conscience, he said.
The annual Heritage Car Rally takes place along the East Coast Road, from Chennai to Puducherry. It will arrive on the Beach Road on Saturday afternoon and the heritage cars will be on display from 4 pm to 8 pm, a release said.
Slew of vintage cars
Amongst the oldest cars that are expected to arrive in town, there is an Austin from 1927, and a Morris 8 Series 1 from 1935. The ‘youngest’ cars are the Hindustan Ambassador, Morris 1000, Mercedes Benz 2505 and Jaguar Mark II, all from 1968.
The rally will start from Besant Nagar Beach in Chennai on Saturday morning at 8.30 am. On Sunday morning, the rally will leave Puducherry and reach Mamallapuram at 1 pm.
The car rally is organised by TheHindu , in association with the Madras Heritage Motoring Club and Puducherry Tourism.
The presenting sponsor for the event is VGN Developers, the hospitality partner is Radisson Blu Temple Bay, Mamallapuram, beverage partner is Kingfisher packaged drinking water, and the support partner is Amaranta Entertainment. The event is managed by I Ads & Events.
The Tourism Department is also trying to come up with a few other measures to promote Life of Pi in Puducherry.
