The newly-incorporated Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) is focussing on innovation in its endeavour to bring lesser-known destinations into the tourism circuit and showcase the culture, heritage and tradition of the State.
“The sector is poised to take off with the incorporation done on fast-track mode and with several new tourist destinations being added. We will spare no effort to put India’s newest State on the international tourism map,” said Principal Secretary-Planning, Tourism & Culture, B.P. Acharya, adding that Warangal and Nalgonda circuits, including Rachakonda Fort and Rangapur Observatory, were being developed.
Projects estimated at about Rs. 100 crore are in various stages of completion with Central funding and while some are those that were sanctioned in 2011-12, nine projects worth Rs. 83 crore are new proposals. New proposals included Rs. 50 crore exclusively to develop the Warangal circuit including a part of Karimnagar district.
In this context, the visit of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to Warangal on Tuesday assumes significance, he pointed out.
A former General Manager in the Andhra Pradesh State TDC, Sumeet Singh, who took over as TSTDC’s Managing Director, said that in the short period since Telangana was formed, Telangana Tourism had taken part in three major fairs - Travel & Tourism Fairs at Ahmedabad and Mumbai, and India International Travel Mart, Bangalore. “We have firmed up an extensive network of agents and will soon launch familiarisation tours for them all over the State,” he said.
Additional Chief-Project Monitoring Unit, B. Srinivas, said they were working on attracting youth and keen on motivating school students and hence, many more package tours were on the way. “We will offer special discounts of up to 25 per cent,” he said, adding that the objective was to revive the ‘excursions in the good-old school days’. Also, the focus was on innovative offerings, package tours like ‘Hyderabad by Night’ and ‘Showcase of Nizam Palaces’ apart from a drive and walk through Charminar and Lad Bazaar.
Closer home, ‘Happening Hyderabad’ is a campaign with the specific objective of showcasing the City of Pearls as the best MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition) destination on the PPP (Public, Private Partnership) mode.
Vishala, an independent consultant, said that when it was launched on August 14, it was only with 52 events over 52 weeks in the year. “However, we have now found that there are many more events that have become part of Hyderabad’s annual calendar,” she said.
