Medical conference boosts economic activity in the region.

MANGALURU: For the first time a four-day medical conference has given a much needed boost to the region's economic activity.
While hotels, taxi services in the region are the direct beneficiaries of Dermacon 2015- the 43rd National Conference of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologist and Leprologists, indirectly all allied activities like catering services, malls will see increased business till Sunday.This event has seen 3000-plus skin specialists descend from all parts of the country, plus a dozen of international delegates.
But the only fall-out of this mega event is for those heading to Mangaluru for a holiday. With pharma companies flying out doctors from all over and giving them transport for their use till the end of stay, this event has ensured that there will be virtually no accommodation or taxis available till Sunday noon.
The 1,000 odd available rooms in the city's hotels are booked, including hotels in nearby areas like Kasaragod, Udupi and Moodabidri. Taxis will not be available in Mangalore taluk limits including Bantwal and Puttur and all taxis are being used by 3,000 delegates who will be arriving here from all over India. All accommodation ranging from budget accommodation in institutions ranging Rs 400 to Rs 12,000 is sold out in the city.
Also a special Jet Airways chartered flight brought in about 165 delegates on Wednesday evening from Mumbai and the same chartered flight on Sunday will take them back to Mumbai.
Roshan Pinto, president, Travel Agents Association here said the 300 plus taxis in Mangaluru, plus another equal number from Udupi, Bantwal, Kinnigoli, Dharmasthala, Mulki, Manipal, Puttur have been pulled out for the medical conference. Such mega events generate lot of economic activity for hotels, taxis and malls. These bookings were done meticulously almost a year back,'' he said.
Dr Ganesh Pai, organising chairman of the conference said last time such an event was held in the city in 1983 when only 800 skin specialists were there in the country. At this event almost 3,000 plus of the 8,000-odd skin specialists in India will be attending this event plus about 15 international delegates from United States, United Kingdom, Spain and European countries,'' said Dr Pai, possibly the only dermatologist working from that era. He said: We went on bidding to have the event here. Normally big cities get the chance due to logistics. Earlier accommodation was a big problem, now we have sufficient numbers,'' he added.
The scale of the event can be gauged by the fact that singer songwriter, composer and actor Lucky Ali and Kannada playback singer Avinash Chebbi have been roped in to entertain the guests on beach front during the course of the event.