Stakeholder institutions like the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, under the Union Ministry of Tourism, have come forward to offer critical support in charting out a road map for identifying and developing tourist spots in the fledgling state of Andhra Pradesh in the post-bifurcation scene.
Status reportThe IITTM South India campus located in Nellore city came out with a brief status report on the existing infrastructure, scope for development and future potential in the tourism sector in terms of both domestic and foreign tourists in all the 13 districts.
Though A.P. has been strong in terms of domestic tourist arrivals with 67.6 per cent share in the erstwhile combined state during 2011, a major chunk of this was because of the huge rush of pilgrim arrivals to Tirumala, the hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara. Listing out such imbalances and outlining areas for development, IITTM officials met and submitted a report to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu recently seeking steps to be initiated by the government to give a head start to tourism infrastructure in the new state.
IITTM South India campus director A. Vinodan said that much spade work had to be carried out for identifying tourist destinations, ensuring destination quality assurance and undertaking promotional activities to attract tourists initially.
All this requires a clear road map in terms of tourist, travel and allied services in which institutions like the IITTM would play a key role in providing basic resources.
