The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Hoteliers on a roll as tourist season begins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 23, 2011
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Hoteliers on a roll as tourist season begins

Nivedita Ganguly

Special packages are on offer for the weekend

Occupancy rates in the city hotels have gone up
New big hotels will further lend fillip to tourism

Photo: K.R. Deepak

Fun time: Foreign tourists enjoying at Hotel Palm Beach in Visakhapatnam.

VISAKHAPATNAM: With the start of the summer tourist season, the occupancy rates in the city hotels have gone up and they are doing brisk business. While the tourist season began late, it caught up by the middle of April.

At The Park, travel by corporate heads and managers and incentive tours have remained steady from the start of the year.

The hotel has maintained nearly 82 per cent occupancy rate, thanks to corporate clients.

“The leisure segment goes up during weekends,” said the hotel's General Manager Ajit Singh Garcha. To gear up for the season, the hotel has introduced special family packages for three nights with additional benefits. A kid's camp started this month giving plenty of options for the children to have an enjoyable summer vacation.

While the occupancy rate at Hotel Palm Beach has been 80 per cent throughout this month, the hotel is gearing up for a busy May and expecting 100 per cent occupancy rates for the month.

“Vizag still has limited rooms in the star hotel category. Though March was a lean period, there has been a good increase in the occupancy rates this month. In fact, inflow of foreign tourists has gone up this season,” said Paramita Banerjee of Hotel Palm Beach.

Incidentally, Vizag, which was reckoned to be among the top preferred tourist destinations by tourists from neighbouring states of West Bengal and Orissa, has also seen a high inflow of tourists from places like Delhi, UP, Jharkhand and other countries. While many hotels recorded more of business travellers from foreign countries, the safe beaches and a wholesome package of the sea and the hills have given a boost to the foreign tourist inflow as well.

And the coming up of many big hotels in the city will further lend fillip to tourism and improve the business traveller segment.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh