[1]The Ernakulam District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC) will open a Visitors’ Centre on its premises near Rajendra Maidan here, by August, in a move to address the complaints that there’s no centralized facilitation centre for tourists.
“The 1,000 sq ft centre, to be built at a cost of Rs 25 lakh, will function as a one-point facilitation centre for tourists. It will have booking counters for hotels, houseboats, flights, trains and buses,” DTPC secretary T.N. Jayashankar told DC.
The centre, planned on the ground floor of the DTPC office, will also provide information about various tourism spots in the state. “Once a tourist arrives at the centre, he or she can organise trips.
The air conditioned facilitation centre will have 10 to 12 counters of various agencies, besides seating arrangements for about a 100 people at a time,” he said.
A proposal for the centre had been submitted to the government quite a long ago. But as there was no response, the DTPC, on the direction of district collector P.I. Sheik Pareeth, decided to utilize its funds for the purpose.
The proposal for such a centre came up as there were complaints from tourists about the absence of professional assistance.
“Tourists are often at the mercy of middlemen who exploit them to the hilt. The facilitation centre will be of great help to the visitors,” said Abraham K.Philip, a frequent visitor to Kochi.
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