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Rajasthan goes big on adventure tourism
By John Satish K., Indo-Asian New Service

New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) Move over camel safaris. Exciting new adventure sports like hot air ballooning, desert skiing and water scootering are set to hit Rajasthan.

This drive by the Rajasthan government will be initiated with an eye to further consolidate its position as the numero uno destination for foreign tourists in the country.

"Rajasthan has been the destination of choice for both foreign and domestic tourists and by offering them more choices on how to spend their getaways, we hope to further increase the inflow of tourists to our beautiful state," Rajasthan government tourism secretary Vinod Zutshi told IANS.

"All this while, people have been coming to visit Rajasthan to see its heritage - from its beautiful palaces to its haunting forts - but now we will give them another reason to come and that will be as the destination of choice for adventure tourism in India."

This initiative by the Rajasthan government began here with the announcement of a 12-day long hot air ballooning fiesta in which 50 balloonists from 11 countries will take part with 20 balloons.

The hot air ballooning festival is expected to be an elaborate affair with promotional free flights and night glow and will begin at Barmer Thursday. It will then move to the fabled Mehrangarh Fort Saturday followed by a two-day stopover at Jodhpur Feb 19-20.

The final leg of the fiesta will be held in state capital Jaipur from Feb 21-25 and will culminate in a grand finale with an international hot air balloon competition. Ace balloonist and consultant Phil Dunnington will oversee the entire operation.

"Adventure tourism is not new to Rajasthan. We already have existing facilities for various activities like camel safaris, jeep safaris, horse and elephant polo but now we want to establish Rajasthan as a hub for hot air ballooning," Zutshi said.

"The plan is to take it forward from this mega event where we hope that the private sector would step in to come up with the necessary infrastructure by setting up institutes in various places.

The initiative will not end with hot air ballooning itself as the Rajasthan tourism department also has other plans on the anvil.

"We have got enquiries from various quarters and people have shown a keen interest in promoting desert sports and water sports in various places across the state," the Rajasthan government's tourism secretary revealed.

"Bikaner and Churu are the proposed hubs for desert sports while the lakes in Bhoondi and Udaipur would be used for water sports. We are also actively considering the idea of promoting river cruises and water sports in Chambal.

"The idea is to diversify. If tourists are offered more choices, they will stay for longer periods and that in turn means more dollars earned. This will also spread the appeal to the younger generation."

According the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC), of the 3.6 million foreign tourists that visited India in 2005, 1.13 million spent their vacation in Rajasthan. The state has seen consistent growth figures near the 50 percent mark for the past few years, RTDC officials said.