The state government of Andhra Pradesh is exploring ways to make the holy town of Tirupati a more tourist engaging city and not just limit it to religious tourism.
In a meeting today held on the Tirupati Economic Region Plan – 2047 senior government officials discussed ways of promoting tourism in Tirupati in more ways than just religious tourism.
“There is a pressing need to promote general tourism in Tirupati which we believe has immense potential to grow multi fold if planned and structured properly with the relevant infrastructure and facilities” Tirupati economic region’s CEO Mr Mukesh Kumar Meena, IAS.
Wedding Destination
He cited weddings to be of immense potential in Tirupati.
“We can certainly capitalize on this. Many people come to do weddings here but if we can organize and structure this in a better manner with convention centres and other amenities Tirupati has the potential to become India’s biggest wedding destination” opined Mr Meena.
Also speaking on the occasion Tirupati’s District Collector Dr. S. Venkateswar, IAS said that Tirupati is a major center of economic and tourism activities in the entire TER region.
He too laid emphasis on enhancing non spiritual tourism in the city. “The average time a person spends in Tirupati is about 18 hours. We need to increase this and take it to 36-48 hours so that he/she can spend more time here and thereby contribute to the local economy” said Dr S Venkateswar, IAS.
The collector also spoke of Tourism circuits as a segment to work upon.
Mr Meena however stressed on enhancing the infrastructure in the Tirupati region so it can further cater to the needs of Tourism.
Similarly, they also discussed the development of major industrial areas in Tirupati district.
Currently, about 44 percent of the district’s GDP comes from the manufacturing sector. They said that there is a need to identify the problems in this sector and formulate a plan to increase industries and employment opportunities locally by developing industrial townships.
Tirupati Economic region
Speaking on the overall Tirupati Economic Region, it was mentioned that although TER covers almost 50 percent of the geographical area of the state, it accounts for about 34 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GSDP).
In this context, Mr Meena said that they are identifying the sectors with more potential for economic growth in the region and are comprehensively analyzing the GVA contribution, growth drivers and necessary policy measures for each sector and sub-sector.
He explained that we are preparing a comprehensive development plan by integrating various sources of funding such as the current land available for each sector, land parcels required for future needs, investment requirements, central government schemes, grants, state government investments, public-private partnership (PPP), and viability gap funding.
Mr Meena informed that a special advisory team has been formed along with the CEO for Tirupati Economic Region Planning.
As part of this, a sub-regional workshop involving three districts was also organized at the Tirupati Collectorate today.
He said that issues related to Tirupati district, especially the development of tourism circuits and increasing the time spent by tourists and devotees in the district, were discussed.
