Seminar on Chinese fishing nets held

KOCHI: In an effort to boost local participation in the development of tourism in Fort Kochi, the District Tourism Promotion Council conducted a series of seminars, exhibitions and campaigns on Tuesday as part of World Tourism Day celebrations.In the day-long programmes, exhibitions were conducted showcasing the heritage and culture of Fort Kochi. At the exhibition, photographs and other historically and culturally important artefacts collected from the residents of Fort Kochi were showcased. This was followed by a seminar on ‘Conservation of the Chinese Fishing Nets ofFort Kochi’. The seminar is held in connection with a project of the Ernakulam DTPC for the restoration of the fishing nets. The project is being undertaken in the context of increasing number of Chinese fishing nets being mechanised and their parts replaced with metals.Various stakeholders, including the workers of Chinese nets in the area, fish workers, people form the fishing industry etc attended the seminar.  In a similar initiative, the people’s campaign for cleanliness was initiated as part of the projects for tourism.  To obtain inputs for the campaign from the locals, a seminar on the topic ‘Fort Kochi Sucheekarana Haritholsavam’ was held on Tuesday.  “We often find that a major chunk of the benefits of tourism go to various private parties, the local population often lose out. This is an attempt to correct this imbalance,” said secretary of Ernakulam DTPC Jayshankar.