GVL initiates ‘Vision Visakhapatnam 2030’ meetings

The meeting, aimed at identifying the possibilities of making Visakhapatnam a high-end tourist destination

Visakhapatnam: BJP Rajya Sabha member GVL Narasimha Rao held a meeting with representatives from the travel, tourism, and hotel sectors on Sunday as part of his “Vision Visakhapatnam 2030” initiative.

The meeting, aimed at identifying the possibilities of making Visakhapatnam a high-end tourist destination and preparing a road map for the same, was attended by AP Chamber of Commerce Chairman, Visakhapatnam Chapter Srinath Chittori, CII Vice-Chairman Granthi Rajesh and representatives from hotel, travel and tourism fields.

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As part of “Vision Visakhapatnam 2030”, GVL had already held meetings with the representatives of shipping, pharma, fertilisers, chemicals and aqua sector industries from Visakhapatnam and arranged interactions of industry representatives with union ministers to prepare a road map for development of these sectors in Visakhapatnam region.

Meeting with the hotel and tourism sectors identified an acute shortage of skilled workers with hospitality, housekeeping, and culinary skills. GVL suggested that the tourism sector offers a great opportunity for training and employing the local youth by creating the necessary training facilities and infrastructure. He would coordinate with the government agencies for setting up such suitable facilities and infrastructure in Visakhapatnam, the MP stated.

Noting that there are no incentives or encouragement from the state government to the tourism and hotel sector and therefore even in a big city like Visakhapatnam, the occupancy rate of hotels is not more than 50 to 60 percent, GVL said that in such a situation, there is a need for the tourism industry to prepare an integrated plan for the development of tourism in Visakhapatnam region. This would require adopting innovative marketing ideas to position Visakhapatnam with its unmatched nature’s resources and beauty as a unique destination in the country, he said and concluded that promoting “Brand Visakhapatnam” and leveraging new infrastructure like the international cruise terminal would help establish it as a major tourist destination not just for leisure tourism but also for eco-tourism, conference tourism, medical tourism etc.