F1 track in Kerala will boost tourism: Narain Karthikeyan

NK_0.jpg.crop_display_0.jpg.crop_display.jpg

The only Asian driver in the Formula One circuit Narain Karthikeyan on Thursday said an F1 rack in Kerala is certainly going to be a boost for tourism.

"Yes, Kerala is known as a tourist destination and hence a race track in the state will certainly boost tourism earnings," Karthikeyan told reporters here.

He was in Thiruvananthapuram to meet Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar to seek the help of the Kerala government so that he can make a demo drive on his HRT team vehicle in the state capital.

"The Minister has agreed to support this and it will happen during the coming Onam season (August). We are now on the lookout for an 800 metre-long road where I can do a demo," said Karthikeyan.

Incidentally this is the first time that Karthikeyan is doing a demo drive in South India.

The Minister after the meeting with the ace driver said that the state government will do their bit to see that this demo drive becomes a reality.

Earlier in the day Kumar said ahead of his meeting with F1 driver that if he suggests that a track in our state will boost tourism activities, they will definitely look into it.

"We are always positive in our outlook. We have no issues in considering new proposals, which will take Kerala tourism to greater heights. For this, we have to think out of the box. We will neither say no nor yes straightaway. All aspects will be looked into. Only then will we comment," he said.

The number of foreign tourists arriving in Kerala rose from 6.5 lakh in 2010 to 7.3 lakh in 2011.

During this period, the number of domestic tourists also grew from 85 lakh to 93 lakh. The state's foreign exchange earnings also rose by 11.18 per cent to touch Rs 4,221 crore, while its earnings went up 9.4 per cent to Rs 19,037 crore.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/146471" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4af7dfc3b073a01f2f1ee797d3fe3606" value="form-4af7dfc3b073a01f2f1ee797d3fe3606" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80065321" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.