A long trail of rock paintings situated in Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary to village tours showcasing rural lives will treat guests arriving at the second edition of Gandhi Sagar Floating Festival being organised by the state tourism department.
Sanjeev Saxena, general manager at the company partnered with state tourism department for organising Gandhi Sagar Floating Festival said, “We have included a rock painting trail, village tours, vulture safari and other customized packages depending upon the inclination of the tourists. The idea is to engage tourists for long stay as most footfalls in Gandhi Sagar are of day visitors.”
The floating festival had started on October 27 against the backdrop of Gandhi Sagar reservoir near Mandsaur to promote tourists footfall in that part of the region with a thrust to water activities and may turn into a round the year activity with a temporary break in summers. Saxena said, depending upon the response of tourists to these activities, the floating festival could be extended into a round the year activity barring the low footfall during summer months.
Planned as an upfront initiative, the event will have discussions and workshops on preserving the craft traditions and leveraging them for promotion of tourism. The Responsible Tourism and Textile Art Festival is a part of the third edition of Beypore International Water Festival (BIWF) to be inaugurated today by Kerala’s Tourism Minister.
Around 50 well-equipped all-weather tents have been set up for guests. The average occupancy in the floating festival is around 20 per cent, said the organisers, contemplating on adding activities to engage tourists from Madhya Pradesh and neighbouring states like Rajasthan. The air and water adventure activities remain the major tourist attraction in the floating festival at Gandhi Sagar that saw a footfall of around 25,000 tourists during the 5-day inaugural event last year.
With an aim to draw more tourists, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has started to host annual festivals at new locations including Gandhi Sagar, Chanderi and Kuno among others.
