Udupi’s St. Mary’s Island, located at a distance of just over six kilometres from the Malpe Beach, has always been one of the major tourist attractions. However, things are going to get even better, as Pramod Madhwaraj (the Minister for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports) has just started an eco-tourism and responsible tourism initiative on the island.
The initiative aims to conserve this popular island’s biodiversity, heritage and ecology and thus improve the international tourist ratings of the destination. Naturally, this would further lead to the increase of tourist footfalls at the island.
The eco-tourism initiative also aims to provide a certain number of facilities for tourists including gazebo, food court, huts, covered waiting area, lifeguard duty and safety equipment, first aid, luggage room, night security, street lamps, souvenir shops, information centre, seating arrangements and an office setup among other things.
Apart from these things, ensuring the entertainment of tourists will be a host of watersports activities including kayaking, snorkelling, jet-skiing, dolphin sighting, cliff diving, parasailing, dolphin sighting, and angling among others. Additional provisions are also being made for taking tourists to Boulder Beach and Seashell Beach under the Basalt Rock Trail. Aiding all of these upcoming tourist facilities would be a storage that would hold 15,000 litres of fresh water on the island.
In addition to all of these attractions for tourists, a special trip to the Peak Point will be organised in order to provide stunning panoramic views of the island to the visitors.
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