The celebrations to mark the beginning of the World Tourism Week kicked off with a traditional welcome given to foreign tourists here on Sunday.
Foreigners were given a warm welcome with garlands made of conches by Tourism Officer (in-charge) S. Venkatachalapathy amidst playing of traditional drums and nagaswaram. An awareness rally was organised from Mahanathapuram to Gandhi Mandapam, in which over 200 students of a private catering school and over 30 folk artistes participated.
A performer, Abu Bucker, enthralled the tourists by riding a bike blind-folded from Mahananthapuram to Gandhi Mandapam.
Students and faculty members of a private engineering college welcomed the foreign tourists with shawls and flower bouquets at the entrance of the tourist town.
The tourism department officials offered sweets to domestic as well as foreign tourists visiting Vivekanandar Memorial Rock and Thiruvalluvar Statue. A series of programmes were scheduled by the department for the entire week.
The number of foreign tourists who visited Kanyakumari rill August this year was 17,069, as against 16,909 in the corresponding period last year.
Similarly, the number of domestic tourists in this period this year was to 6,66,116 as against 6,59,879 recorded last year, Mr. Venkatachalapathy said.
A seminar was organised at the Constituent College of the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University.
Mr. Venkatachalapathy said V. Dhanabal Singh, Head of the Department of Tourism, N.M. College, Dr. C. Sundaralingam, retired Professor and HOD, Department of History, SBK College, Aruppukkottai, A. Raja Selvam, Principal, Haneefa Catering College, Kanyakumari, S. Sathiyavalli, Curator, Government Museum, Kanyakumari, andV. Ramesh Kumar, HOD, Tourism Department, Haneefa Catering College, Kanyakumari, presented papers on various aspects of tourism on Friday.
