Tourism in the country benefits people in three ways; it creates employment, helps infrastructure development and generates revenue in foreign exchange. Mysuru, though has always been touted as a tourist destination, needs more push and the effort of a private enterprise, Mysore Travel Mart, in this direction is quite laudable. Union Minister of State for Tourism (with Independent charge) Alphons Joseph Kannanthanam had himself come all the way from New Delhi to inaugurate the event in Mysuru recently.
Star of Mysore Features Editor N. Niranjan Nikam caught up with the Minister at Hotel Grand Mercure for a brief chat and the suave, articulate, former bureaucrat spoke about converting Mysuru into Paris as promised by Narendra Modi in his 2014 election speech before he became the Prime Minister and his willingness to take Mysuru internationally… Excerpts. —Ed
