N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, has exhorted his officials to complete all the tourism projects in a fast-track mode. He was addressing a review meeting with the State Tourism Promotion Board officials at the Secretariat.
He asked to identify tourism circuits and develop state-of-the-art infrastructure to attract more tourists to the state – both domestic and international.
The state has hosted around 168 million domestic tourists during the year 2017-18, while had around 2.5 lakh foreign tourists in the state.
“The state will have 23 five star hotels by the year 2020 and tender process are on the way for another 10 five star hotels,” informed Mukesh Kumar Meena, Secretary of Tourism to the CM in the meeting.
The CM suggested having a separate division for development of hotels and initiatives to increase the number of hotel rooms.
Proposal for a Submarine Heritage Museum in Vishakhapatnam beach road has presented in the meeting by three agencies. Naidu asked to gather public opinions on the project before finalizing the design and said the project should be implemented with international standards. He also inquired about the potential of water sports in the area.
Scuba Diving – Picture of representative purpose only
The meeting also discussed the prospects of Sky school in Vishakhapatnam, which promote scuba diving. The CM asked to introduce it to other parts of the state, along with para gliding and para-motor gliding.
While talking about temple tourism, the CM suggested linking tourism projects with temple circuits, to utilize the number of spiritual hotspots in the state. He also asked the possibility of making the Kuchipudi artists the Ambassadors of the state and to assign them to provide traditional welcome to tourists who visit the state.
Kuchupudi Dance – Photo Courtesy: Manoj Attingal
Akhila Priya, Minister of Tourism; Girija Shankar, Secretary to Chief Minister; Karikala Velavan, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administrating and Urban Development; Himamnshu Shukla, Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation Director etc. were present in the meeting.
