Jasmine Flowers Shankerpura gets recognition from Manipal University on World Toursim Day

By Alphonse Mendonsa
Bellevision Media Network

Shankerpura, 06 Oct 2016: On the occasion of World Tourism Day, Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research (Welcomgroup Graduate School Hotel Administration), Manipal University  held one day seminar on Farm Tourism and Home Stay. The event took place on 27th September 2016 at Rotary Club Shankerpura. The main purpose of this event was to popularize Jasmine flower cultivation and also popularize Shankerpura as a popular tourism destination globally. Rtn. Anil D’Sa (President) Rotary Club Shankerpura accorded a warm welcome to the representatives from Manipal University and students and welcomed the dignitaries to the dais. The event was inaugurated by lighting the traditional lamp.

 

Shankerpura Jasmine marked as the geographical indication, the opportunity of promoting the destination was initiated by WGSHA and representatives of Stayzilla (an online platform for homestays). It was very much informative for the people of Shankerpura to know more about generating revenue out of their agricultural lands by building homestays and other facilities.

 

 

Since the Jasmine cultivation began in Shankerpura before a century ago and it was the daily bread of people of Shankerpura for a century and then slowly spreads to the neighboring villages, Centre for Hospitality & Tourism Research and Department of Allied Hospitality Studies, WGSHA, Manipal University recognized the effort of Jasmine farmers on World Tourism Day. 

 

Rtn Edward Mendonsa explained in detail the growth of cultivation to the faculty members and the students attended the seminar. He explained to students how to grow plants, the Jasmines are bloomed, plucked early in the morning, tied and marketed to the flower merchants of Shankerpura. He also explained how Jasmines are popular not only in Karnataka but also in Mumbai as large chunk of Jasmines are exported to Mumbai by flight daily.

 

The faculty members present were Prof Parvadhavardhini Gopalakrishnan (Principal, Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration), Prof. P. Valsaraj (Head – Department of Allied Hospitality Studies and coordinator Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research) Dr. Senthil Kumaran, Prof Sandeep Srivastava. Mr. Pradeep and Mr. Mahesh, officials from Stayzilla Bengaluru conducted the Agritourism Seminar. 65 students of Dept. of Allied and Hospitality Studies attended the programme.

 

Speaking on the occasion Prof Valsaraj said the purpose of conducting the seminar to highlight the popularity of the Shankerpura Jasmine to the domestic and international tourists and promote farm tourism and homestays at Shankerpura. He further added that the Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research will be conducting similar program in rural areas to foster the development of community-based tourism through training, mentoring and marketing support by involving stakeholders at all stages of tourism life cycle.

 

On the occasion the students were also introduced to farming wherein they visited an agricultural farm located near Bantakal Engineering College.