Investors line up to ramp up hotel rooms
A slew of Investors have come forward to set up a range of hotels in the city and other districts of the state which will see room inventory surge across Andhra Pradesh.
In the recently held Regional Tourism Conference companies came forward to set up 825 rooms in Visakha- patnam, Tirupati, Amara- vati and Alluri Seetha- ramaraju districts of the state.
The state’s Tourism, Culture and Cinemato- graphy Minister Mr Kandula Durgesh signed MoUs for 8 tourism projects worth Rs. 1,217 crores at the conference. This according to the Minister Durgesh will help create 2,567 jobs in the tourism sector.
‘Under the directive of our chief minister efforts will be made to set up 50,000 rooms in the state in five years’ said Mr Durgesh.
The minister stated that the government is fully committed to boosting tourism in Uttara Andhra region as it is a wonderful natural destination.
This region will be further developed by bringing tourism projects here said the minister and highlighted that the opportunities and resources available for tourism development related to Uttara Andhra region have been well described to the collectors of the respective districts.
The Tourism minister also acknowledged industry concerns and said that their demands are being actively considered.
‘We are ready to provide industry concessions in terms of GST, power and Municipal Corporation charges to the tourism sector through the new tourism policy’ pointed out Mr Durgesh.
He further added that the hotel associations request to allow hotels to operate till late nights will definitely be implemented. In addition he said that the request to bring down the liquor bar license fee from Rs. 66 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs is also being taken up and that the Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu is going to take a decision on this issue soon.
The Minister also revealed that a cruise hub will be set up in Vizag soon. ‘Vizag will become a real hub for entertainment and tourism’ opined Mr Durgesh. The state government had recently come out with a new tourism policy to attract investments into this sector.
