Thiruvananthapuram: State govt is taking steps to integrate tourism and culture and create a unified promotional strategy with greater synergy in heritage, art and films, as tourism and culture departments have been brought under the same minister.Culture and tourism were governed by different ministers during the previous govts. In many states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra and Rajasthan, these two departments are under the same ministry.“It is going to be a great opportunity for us because these two sectors are going to be under the same ministry. Tourism and culture used to be separate. We have a lot of heritage and art forms that can be promoted together in tourism,” said the newly appointed tourism and cultural affairs minister P C Vishnunadh.“The idea is to bring these two together in one place so the tourists can also experience and be a part of it” he added. There will be unified promotions and events.Govt is also working on a tourism policy and discussing the issues that need to be included in it, he said.Department of culture promotes art forms, visual arts, theatre, dance, music, folklore, literature, films, heritage conservation and manages many institutions like Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Kerala Kalamandalam, Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, Kerala Lalithakala Akademi and Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.Rajkumar K, CEO, Kerala Travel Mart Society, said that bringing together tourism and culture departments under the same ministry is a positive sign as they are correlated. “Coordination will be easy. Many projects can be done linking art and culture and tourism as foreign tourists prefer to experience culture also. This will also help upgrade infrastructure in many of the institutions that promote art and art forms and cultural heritage. Kerala Kalamandalam can be used for tourism promotion,” he said.Govt will also be able to give permissions for film shoots with an eye on promoting tourism because films make destinations popular.“Several tourists started visiting Athirappilly waterfalls after the movie ‘Baahubali’ got released, houseboats became more popular after the movie ‘Dil Se’ and Gavi gained popularity after being featured in the movie ‘Ordinary’,” he added.Siji Nair, CEO, Global Travel Market, said that integration can be done in a better way and resources can be used meaningfully as culture department has many sites and institutions with them and handles art, heritage, culinary traditions and more. “There can be integrated promotion of art and culture and events and facilitation of travel and tourism,” he said.He added that tourism and culture are interconnected, but both were taking a different direction under separate ministries.
