The Hindu Business Line : ‘AP drawing more tourists’

A winding road along the beach between Vizag and Bheemunipatnam is being widened into a four-lane one. It is one of the tourism development projects undertaken by VUDA. The green-capped hills and beautiful beaches make the city a hot tourist destination.

Our Bureau

Visakhapatnam, Sept. 27 The number of domestic tourist arrivals to Andhra Pradesh, as well as Visakhapatnam, has gone up substantially in recent years and the State is in fact standing first, according to Mr Jeevan Prasad, Divisional Manager of the AP Tourism Development Corporation.

On the occasion of the World Tourism Day on Thursday, he said the number of domestic tourist arrivals had gone up from 8.94 crore in 2004 to 11.17 crore in 2006 and the number of foreign tourists from 5.01 lakh to 6.69 lakh.

He said that Visakhapatnam was being developed as a tourist destination, with several projects being taken up in recent times.

“The number of tourists arriving here went up from 3.11 lakh in 2003 to 4 lakh in 2006 and till now 1.54 lakh tourists have arrived this year, marking a 13 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year. Of course, the number of tourists from West Bengal is more in Visakhapatnam. But we are making attempts to attract tourists from all over the country and abroad too,” he said.

He said the construction of 24 AC rooms at Rushikonda beach had been taken up at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore. Hotel Mayuri, with 65 rooms (53 being AC rooms), in Araku valley at a cost of Rs 5 crore and 16 more cottages at Anantagiri were the other major projects.

The Vizag-Bheemli beach road widening is going on smoothly and it would offer an exhilarating ride to tourists, he said.

Mr Prasad said that with several major projects coming up in the city and the IT sector picking up, the number of tourist arrivals would rise in future and, therefore, infrastructure was being strengthened by APTDC. The private sector was also contributing, with a number of resorts and hotel projects being taken up.

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