To aggressively showcase the enormous tourism potential in Andhra Pradesh and create a roadmap for inclusive and seamless tourism across the region, nation and globe, the State chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is eager to host the National Tourism Festival here next year.
The State government has identified the tourism sector as a growth engine and is doing all it can to showcase its high potential in the global arena. A special task force has been formed to promote tourism at the State Government level with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu as its chairman.
“Currently, we are preparing a report on tourism prospects in the Krishna Godavari Prakasam and Guntur (KGPG) region. Mr. Naidu has christened Andhra Pradesh as a ‘Sunrise’ State and to achieve the goal, we need to attract the world’s attention by grooming world-class tourist destinations,” said K. Pattabhiram, member of the CII, Vijayawada zone.
Mr. Pattabhiram has just returned from Chandigarh which hosted this year’s tourism festival.
The three-day tourism summit brought on a common platform all the stakeholders such as travel and tour operators and hotel and airlines industry.
Hosted by the CII, in partnership with the Union Ministry of Tourism, the event attracted participation of countries like Abu Dhabi, China, Japan, Mauritius and Thailand.
“Rajasthan is bidding to host next year’s fare but we are also equally eager and intend to bid for the same,” said Mr. Pattabhiram.
“Nothing much has happened on the tourism front in the last 10 years in this region. Even the Government did not focus much on it. We are in the process of identifying potential tourism sites in this region with an aim to create adequate infrastructure like providing connectivity and basic amenities to attract investors,” said Mr. Pattabhiram, who will head a committee constituted to promote tourism in this region. “The focus will be on developing tourist circuits; for instance, temple tourism, Buddhist circuit, wild life circuit and a beach circuit. It is a massive task but somewhere there has to be a beginning,” he said.
The tourism panel which is now focussed on KGPG region, will soon replicate the exercise across the State, he said, adding that Andhra Pradesh will soon have a brand ambassador to promote tourism far and wide.
