Santosh Patnaik
Visakhapatnam: With arrival of few tourists from Odisha and West Bengal, the hopes of reviving tourism season in Andhra Pradesh have revived.
After lockdown and the subsequent restrictions imposed due to coronavirus pandemic, revenue from tourism completely crashed. However, with normalcy slowly getting restored leisure tourist have started evincing interest to undertake short vacation.
Photos: C.V. Subrahmanyam
Visakhapatnam is endowed with picturesque locales and a rare combination if green-capped valley and virgin beaches. During annual tourist season it gets lot of tourists from neighboring States like Odisha and West Bengal during October and January due to pleasant winter climate.
“We are very happy thar we are receiving Odia and Bengali tourists wishing to spend quality time with near and dear, taking a break from pandemic-induced confinement to own homes/cities and towns,” an official of AP Tourism Development Corporation, said.
Visakhapatnam and its nearby areas are famous for million-year-old Borra Caves, tribal hill resorts of Araku, Simhachalam temple of Sri Varaha Narasimha Swamy and the 30-km panoramic beachfront of the city known as City of Destiny, Waltair and Vizag.
“We comprising two families were waiting for a long break and came together in our SUV this weekend to Vizag to have some fun after booking a sea-facing hotel,” Debendra Padhi, a businessman from Berhampur told Odisha Channel.
AP Tourism Minister Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao said that the State Government would soon release tourism policy.
Re-start operations
Speaking at CII AP Tourism Conclave he said they would take lead in tourism re-start operations in the country. He said that tourism in India had grown by leaps and bounds over the years, with each region of India contributing something to its splendor and exuberance.
Rao felt that AP had the distinction of being a leading tourism destination in India and was presently, the third most visited State in terms of domestic tourism.
In view of COVID-19 AP would continue to promote State domestically to attract a greater number of tourists, the Minister said adding the State was a microcosm within itself – offering unmatched tourism potential to investors and tourists. He said it offered multitude of theme-based options to explore across its length and breadth.
He highlighted the major strengths of AP tourism themes such as beach & water-based, eco-tourism, Buddhist, religious, heritage spiritual or wellness and medical which had the great potential in the coming days.
