Visakhapatnam: Despite ample opportunities including a pleasantly cold weather, lush natural beauty and golden beaches, Andhra Pradesh fails to tap the tourists from North India. Most of the visitors to the tourist destinations in the state are from West Bengal, Odisha and parts of Telangana and Karnataka. The AP tourism department officials have asked the Tours and Travels Association to work towards attracting the visitors from the northern states too.
In Andhra Pradesh, after Tirupati that is known for its pilgrim tourism, Vizag is the most sought after tourist destination. Andhra Pradesh has attracted 15.35 crore tourists, 3.41 lakh foreign visitors in 2016. Tirupati in Chittoor district in the state was at the top of the list, att-racting domestic tourists with 4.23 crore visitors, whereas Anantapur district topped in attracting foreign tourists with 2.09 lakh visitors in 2016 as both districts have pilgrimage tourist destinations.
Tourists enjoy taking pictures in the blossoming yellow flowers at a farm near Araku Valley in Visakhapatnam Agency on Monday.(Photo: K. Muralikrishna)
“Though AP has many more tourist attractions, it has failed to tap the tourism potential as most of the visitors to the state are from parts of southern India, West Bengal and Odisha states. Very few North Indians visit the tourist destination in the state,” said CEO of AP tourism authority Himamsu Shukla. “We are appealing to the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) to promote the tourist destination in Andhra across North India. Vizag is the top tourist destination with beaches and beautiful Eastern Ghats in the state, but the inflow of the foreign tourists and domestic visitors to Vizag is not up to mark,” he added.
Sources said that at present, there were only 8,500 good hotel rooms in Andhra Pradesh including those in five-star hotels, but at least 10,000 more hotel rooms would have to be added by 2025 to attract the tourists from various parts of the country and globe. “There are many winged guests in Srikakulam and Nellore districts in the state and water springs. Lammasingi and Dallapalle, the coolest places in the state during winter, can be explored as an opportunity to promote tourism in winter but no effort has been made in this direction to attract the tourists from North India,” said B. Anil Kumar, a research scholar and social activist.
