Night life will be promoted to tap tourism potential of Mangaluru city, coastal towns: Karnataka Deputy CM D. K. Shivakumar

The aim is to tap tourism potential of the coastal region of Karnataka, says Deputy CM

Unlike Bengaluru and Mumbai, which are most vibrant cities during the night, Mangaluru has no nightlife to entertain the youth. “The tourism potential of the coastal cities can be exploited by promoting entertainment activities during the night,” said Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar

“Mangalore city is dead after 7 p.m. No one comes out of their houses after 7 p.m. There are no entertainment activities in the night, except Yakshagana and temple festivals,” Mr Shivakumar told Byndoor MLA Gururaj Shetty Gantihole (BJP) during Question Hour in the legislative Assembly on March 4.

The coastal region of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts have huge tourism potential owing to vast natural resources. Lakhs of people embark on temple tourism, beach tourism, health and education tourism in the region. But there are no activities during the night to entertain young minds, he said. “In fact, most of the city bus operators shut operations in Mangaluru city after 8 p.m. This has caused a lot of inconvenience to commuters.”

The Deputy Chief Minister said that a separate meeting of legislators of the coastal region would be called to promote entertainment activities during night and tourism in the region.

Earlier, Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism Minister H. K. Patil said close to eight crore people from different parts of Karnataka and country tour the three coastal districts every year. A large number of schools and educational institutions undertake educational tours in the coastal region and visit temples in Kolluru, Udupi, Dharmasthala and Horanadu where temple managements have been offering annadana (free meals).

Mr. Patil said tenders have been invited to promote investment in tourism in the coastal region.

He said that the new tourism policy has taken several measures to promote coastal tourism in the State. A total of 40 nodes, or tourism centres, have been proposed between Karwar and Mangaluru, as part of a drive to develop tourism along the 320 km coastline of Karnataka.  Spread across Dakshina Kannada (4), Udupi (17) and Uttara Kannada (19) districts, the nodes will be developed with private partnership as hubs along the lines of similar destinations in Goa.