Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh will observe 2023 as ‘Visit Andhra Pradesh’ year to foster tourism, with particular emphasis on attracting foreign tourists.
Towards this, the AP Tourism Development Corporation has developed a GIS-based web portal to market the various tourism destinations in the state.
On the occasion of World Tourism Day on Tuesday, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the GIS-based web portal and declared 2023 as ‘Visit Andhra Pradesh’ year.
“Tourism and hospitality is a critical sector as it contributes to large employment. It has gone through turbulent times in the past two years due to Covid-19 pandemic but is now recovering,” Special Chief Secretary (Tourism and Culture) Rajat Bhargava said.
The prime objective of declaring 2023 as Visit Andhra Pradesh year was to aid the tourism and hospitality sector to the maximum extent and help it flourish, he said.
“We have been very active in holistic improvement of our tourist destinations including scaling up amenities, promoting infrastructure development and attracting investments. With the groundwork done, we are now focusing on tourism promotion to increase awareness on the beautiful destinations of our state,” Rajat told PTI.
The GIS portal would be used to promote and market tourist spots through destination management activities like planning, development, delivery, coordination and monitoring.
The Special Chief Secretary said focus would also be on promotion of local arts and crafts industry and commercialisation of local tourism offerings in the international markets.
A concerted campaign approach is also being adopted to promote AP’s culture and heritage, the first such effort by any state in the country, Rajat added.
While port city Visakhapatnam would be a gateway destination during ‘Visit Andhra Pradesh’ year, new tourist circuits like tribal, Buddhist and forts would be extensively promoted.
“Food and cuisine, festivals and beaches of AP will also be the focus areas while we are coming up with new themes like caravan tourism and experiential tourism. We are also opening new-defined temple tourism circuits that include the holy Shaktipeethams in the state,” Rajat said.
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