Sunday, Sep 28, 2003
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Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad
By Our Staff Reporter
He also suggested that the Rs. 900 crores revenue generated by the famous temples in the State could be used to develop tourist facilities there so that more domestic tourists can be accommodated. At a function organised by the Department of Tourism and Culture here, Mr. Naidu launched the new version of the AP tourism website equipped to answer queries about tourist spots in the State in German, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese languages, a virtual tour website and the official website of the State Archaeology Department. A compendium of tales and legends about historic sites in the State, a book on the State's tourism potential and two volumes of inscriptions of AP in Mahbubnagar district and postcards of paintings and sculptures in AP State Museum were also released. Stating that the foundation for a great tourism industry was laid in AP during the last four years with as many as 200 tourism projects coming up at a whopping Rs. 2,000 crores investment in private partnership, Mr. Naidu directed the Tourism authorities to speed up ongoing projects and also explore new avenues to exploit the tourism potential of the State. While tourist hot spots like Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines attracted tourists who numbered double and more of their entire population, India accounted for only 0.38 per cent of the tourist traffic in the Asia Pacific. "These countries promote themselves smartly while we endowed with rich heritage, history and nature's bounty are unable to promote ourselves properly," he pointed out. "We have to sell ourselves well. For example, Vijayawada is a city of canals and no other city in the country had this kind of canal network. All we need to do is identify such strong points." The Chief Minister called for an attitudinal change in people to ensure tourists return back. "We should be courteous and not cheat them and also ensure their safety so that our goodwill will improve and their number increases," he maintained. The Tourism Minister T. Srinivas Yadav, listed out various tourism projects taken up in the State and "the sea change in the tourism scenario witnessed during the last four years after the State Government announced the first ever tourism policy in the history of the State." He also gave away the World Tourism Day awards to people in various spheres of activity for excellence in tourism promotion. Taj Residency, Visakhapatnam, won the best five star hotel award while Central Court, Hyderabad, got the top honours in the three star category. The best tour operator award went to Royal Travels and best travel agent to Sony Holidays. Kailasagiri, in Visakhapatnam, was adjudged the best tourism site and Chandragiri and Kondapalli forts the best tourism friendly monuments. Horsely Hills got the best eco tourism project award. Pratima Sagar of Bhairava Publications and Mangamuri Srinivas of Eenadu daily, were given the excellence in travel writing award in English and Telugu respectively. D. Ravinder Reddy won the best photography award for his pictorial book on Andhra Pradesh.
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