CHENNAI: Ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly session, State Tourism minister K Ramachandran chaired a high-level meeting along with the authorities to review the development works with regard to his department.

During the meeting the minister revealed that from January 2024 to May 2024 as many as 23,15,101 tourists have travelled in the boats at various tourism centres.

The minister instructed the officials that a discount should be given to the tourists, who stay more than three days in the hotels maintained by Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC). "The best services including food varieties offered by the TTDC hotels should attract the tourists to make them the number one choice to visit again," he added.

The Minister also claimed that from January 2024 to April 2024, as many as 4.97 lakh foreign tourists visited the state besides 10.14 crore from other states visited Tamil Nadu during the same period.

Listing out the improvements in the infrastructure activities, he said the state government has allocated Rs 17.57 crore to further develop the existing Hogenakkal tourism spot in Dharmapuri district.

"Additional facilities for the tourists will also be made in Pichavaram tourism spot at the cost of Rs 14.07 crore", he added. The meeting also discussed about the construction of a two-deck boat hotel at Muttukadu near here at a cost of Rs 5 crore.