The Andhra Pradesh government will be signing an agreement with the World Tourism Organisation within the next fortnight for consultancy work in the state for identification and development of tourism centres or hubs.
"The organisation will prepare detailed project reports for development of various sectors of tourism and might also make investments if a project is good enough," state tourism secretary S N Mohanty told Business Standard yesterday. He was in the Capital to take part in the two-day Euromoney conference.
According to Mohanty, apart from the world body's projects, which will cover other areas in the state, the AP government has decided to develop Vishakapat-nam and Nagarjunasagar apart from Hyderabad and Tirupati as tourist hubs.
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Some of the top consultancy firms like KPMG, Delhi-based Tourism Futures and UK-based EDAW Ltd, and some domestic and foreign companies are in the race for tourism development projects for Vishakapatnam and Nagarjunasagar.
EDAW Ltd has already submitted detailed conceptual plans on Tirupati (estimated cost: Rs 300 crore) and Hyderabad (Rs 350 crore-Rs 500 crore). The combined efforts to create four tourism hubs and develop other parts of the state are part of the AP government's blueprint to attract 0.5 million foreign tourists by the year 2020 and about 120 million domestic tourists. The state plans to attract about Rs 400,000 crore over the next five-seven years in the tourism sector.
Mohanty said that in an effort to develop tourism, the government is emphasising on the development of infrastructural facilities like roads, transports, hotels and other value additions like amusement parks and golf courses. The state government is also preparing an inventory of properties to be offered as heritage hotels.
"The government, being a facilitator, is not averse to joining hands with private parties for ventures where it's contribution would be in the form of land," Mohanty said, adding, "the idea is to make AP the destination state of India."
AP's overdrive on tourism stems from the fact that the world tourism body has, in its projections for the year 2020, observed that there are signs of strong erosion in the tourism market share of Europe and America.
It said that as a result, South Asia and the Pacific will double their share of world tourist arrivals from 14 per cent to 27 per cent. Also, South Asian tourist arrivals are expected to increase by five times to reach 19 million by the year 2020.