The tourists who visit Veli tourist village to rejoice in the unique geographical confluence of a lagoon and sea are at a loss now. None can be blamed if they are dismayed with the facilities provided there.
Though the boat service that got interrupted owing to clogging of water hyacinths in the lake was restarted a few months ago, both foreign and domestic tourists have much more expectations about this tourist destination, which they candidly shared with Express.
Chandran, who lives in a coastal village near Veli, said that in every other tourist destination, there will be at least a dormitory, but there is nothing here. “There are hotels and rest houses at Varkala, Kovalam, Ponmudi or Neyyar, but we feel ashamed to tell a ‘no’ to the tourists, especially foreigners, when they ask for a stay near Veli,” he said.
“Our driver from the hotel where we are staying dropped us here, when we asked for water sports. To our surprise, we found no such facilities other than the boat service, that too not venturing into the sea. Children were expecting more fun here, but now they realise what was meant by water sports by the local driver,” said Poonam, a tourist from Baroda who came with her six-member family for a vacation.
Suresh Kumar, working with KTDC as a boat driver for more than 20 years, said that if the waterways and tourist village at Veli are systematically developed with proper vision, then the inflow of tourists will be tremendous.
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