The 3rd Tamil Nadu International Kite Festival to be held today (August 15) till the 18th was inaugurated by Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department Tha.Mo.Anparasan and Tourism Minister K.Ramachandran in cooperation with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department at Thiruvidanthai Beach, East Coast Road, Chengalpattu District. They visited.
Later, Tourism Minister K. Ramachandran said to the press, “Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is making Tamil Nadu a premier state in all fields in India. Especially in order to make Tamilnadu the leading state in the field of tourism, due to the success of the chess olympiad competition which attracted the attention of the world tourists, foreign tourists including people from different sectors of the world are making a large number of tourist trips to Mamallapuram.
In order to attract foreign and domestic tourists through the tourism industry, programs like Indian dance festival in Mamallapuram, summer festivals in hill stations, balloon festival in Pollachi, Chennai festival in Chennai archipelago with the participation of foreign and foreign artisans and handloom weavers are being held continuously.
The number of foreign tourists has increased from 57,622 in 2021 to 4,07,139 in 2022 and 11,74,899 in 2023 due to the series of measures to attract tourists. Currently, 6,45,296 foreign tourists have visited Tamil Nadu from January to June 2024.
Similarly, the number of domestic tourists has increased from 11,53,36,719 in 2021 to 21,85,84,846 in 2022 and 28,60,11,515 in 2023. Currently, 15,49,10,708 domestic tourists have visited Tamil Nadu from January to June 2024.
For the third year in a row, the Tamil Nadu International Kite Festival will be held for 4 days starting today at 2024 East Coast Road Thiruvidanthai beach. 40 kitesurfers from international kite teams from various countries including France, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland, Vietnam and India participated in the event and competed against different species including dolphins, horses, cats, sharks, blue whales, goldfish, snakes, bears, octopuses and gorillas. More than 250 kites will be displayed to the public.
In this kite festival, the team of Tamil Nadu will fly a special kite to represent the famous jallikattu of Tamil Nadu. ‘Colour Your Life’ is the theme of this year’s Kite Festival.
Last year 150 kites participated. This year the ceremony is being held at the beach area near Kovalam as more graduates are participating and need more space for the 250 kites they will be flying.
One of the major highlights of this year’s festival is the Cobra Kite, and for the first time the festival will feature a giant colorful ‘teddy bear’.
“Thousands of people have come today to show that this kite festival is good,” he said.
Tourism, Culture and Charitable Institutions Department Principal Secretary B. Chandramohan, Tourism Commissioner and Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director C. oneindiasoorthy, Chengalpattu District Governor S. Arunraj, Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation General Manager S. Kavita, Tiruppurur Union Committee Leader Ithayavarman, District Additional Superintendent of Police Bhujaendhi Ganesh and officials of Tourism Department and Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation were present.
