The 34th annual conference of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) will be held in the city from Thursday (September 6). The conference, being held in Andhra Pradesh for the first time, post bifurcation, is expected to promote tourism in a big way in the State.
IATO handles around 80% of the foreign tourist arrivals. It had a long association with the State with two of its earlier conferences being held in 1997 and 2003 in united Andhra Pradesh.
During the last three months, over 100 tour operators came to Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati on familiarisation trips and they had seen the tourist places and identified the gaps and would present them at the conference, CEO of AP Tourism Authority Himanshu Shukla told the media here on Wednesday.
Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) Vice-Chairman P. Basanth Kumar briefed about the tourism projects developed by VUDA during the last 25 years. The Kailasagiri Hill, developed by VUDA in 1992, was a major tourist attraction with a toy train, ropeway and the World Telugu Museum, which was a must see for tourists.
The Kursura Submarine Museum and the TU 142 Aircraft Museum were developed by VUDA, in 2002 and 2017 respectively, and now Sea Harrier Museum would also be developed soon. He felt that steps should be taken to increase the foreign tourist footfalls to the State.
Familiarisation trips
IATO president Pronab Sarkar said over 600 tour operators were expected to participate. Already four familiarisation trips were organised and the operators have explored the places of tourist interests in Visakhapatnam and other parts of the State.
