Telangana tourism booms after bifurcation
The tier-two cities like Warangal and Karimnagar have become top preferred destinations for the domestic tourists as the number of tourists has increased considerably after the formation of new state Telangana. As per the statistics of authorities, the number of tourists to Warangal has surged substantially over the last two years. Around 2 crore tourists visited Warangal in last four years; Karimnagar had the second most tourists with the numbers touching more than 1 crore, succeeded by Mahbubnagar with more 90 lakh tourists, Khammam with more than 70 lakh and Nalgonda with 64 lakh.
The state capital Hyderabad used to have most number of tourists in past years, however these places have outdid the capital as the most favoured destinations. The Tourism Department and Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation have jointly framed many initiatives and had worked well to boost awareness regarding the unexplored destinations in Telangana among the tourists. Other factors which resulted in boosting the tourism sector are state government’s decision to associate ‘state festival’ to the tribal gathering ‘Sammakka Saralamma Jatara’, other expansion activities at tourist spots, promoting temple tourism, Pushkaralu etc. The government has stressed on promoting temple tourism and had allotted whopping amount of money for the development of temples like Yadadri, Vemulawada, Bhadradri etc. The tourism departments have also concentrated on branding, which resulted in the installment of stalls at airports, metro stations in major cities in the country.
The authorities said that 2017 was the best year for Telangana Tourism as the city had hosted Ivanka Trump and other delegates of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, World Telugu Conference, SKAL International World Congress and several other business and trade meets. The Bhoopalpally district is the latest addition to the tourism destinations, as it has been getting great number of tourists with the newly discovered ‘Gaddalasari waterfall’. People from IT industry are the frequent visitors to the spot and the results indicate that online bookings have increased for the waterfalls. In a move to boost the tourism sector, the tourism department also conducted road shows in New Delhi, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Kohima (Nagaland), Aizwal (Mizoram) and others. “The priorities have changed after Telangana became a separate state. The government wants to showcase the state to the world so that more and more tourists visit, which would help in direct and indirect employment,” said an official of tourism department.