CHENNAI: While key meetings and sessions of the Global Investors Meet were happening in one side of Chennai Trade Centre, a part of the participants and delegates were having a fun time with a new friend 'Elakkiah', who invited them to the state tourism department's pavilion.
Elakkiah, a robot, entertained the guests with options like pavilion tour, quiz, and jigsaw puzzle.
Tamil Nadu tourism department has set up a fascinating pavilion at the GIM to attract investments to the field. Other than Elakkiah, an interactive board and a 3D-Jallikattu bull have been set up, all of which caught the attention of participants.
The pavilion has been divided into four — Jallikattu, folk art, food, and interactive zones. After engaging with Elakkiah, most international delegates went ahead to see and take photographs with the 3D model of Jallikattu, a traditional bull taming sport of the state.
Elakkiah, realising no one takes a photo with it, tried to gain back attention by providing an option to click selfies and instantly send those to the respective email IDs of the guests.
Later, in the folk arts zone, the guests saw dolls coming alive. In the interactive zone, eight logos including those of UNESCO sites and wildlife sanctuaries were shown and the visitors will be provided with all information about the places along with photos in a touch. The Tamil Nadu Tourism Policy, 2023, released by Chief Minister M K Stalin in September, was also shown in the interactive zone. Different sectors for investments and incentives were explained in a click.
"This year, we used latest technologies to make the pavilion more interactive and interesting. Elakkiah and Jallikattu zone attracted more international participants, " an official from the department said.