TOURISM

1. Brief note about the Department:

             Travel and tourism are one of the oldest activities known to human kind. During the pre-historic times, man used to travel in search of food and shelter. However, with the passage of time, travel had become a leisure activity largely undertaken to break away from mundane routine. The concept of paid holidays during the time of industrial revolution played a crucial role in popularising leisure tourism and weekend getaways leading to development of mass tourism destinations. However, with time, the concept of mass tourism has had a damaging effect to the destination owing to factors like pollution, over-crowding etc. which paved way for emergence of alternate forms of tourism like sustainable tourism, green tourism, heritage tourism, eco-tourism, which not only offer tourism opportunities but also cause less    (or almost negligible) damage to the destination. This provides for a win-win situation for all tourism stakeholders viz. tourists, government, local community, businesses, etc. Nevertheless, development of any industry or activity requires a streamlined and systematic approach. Thus, the above factors led to development of theory of tourism system, to go into the depth of this phenomenon, specifically, considering factors like drawing power or pull force offered by a destination, push factors or what motivates people to undertake travel and finally what tourists do in the intermediate time frame.

2. Activities:  The Government of India, NITI Aayog ( State Plans Division )has sanctioned two projects i.e. Budget Hotel at Laxmidevipalli and Eco-Toursim Developmentat Kinnerasani Wild life Sanctuary at Kinnerasani .

• Budget Hotel at Kothagudem: 8.00 acres of land in Sy.No.17/28 situated at Laxmidevipalli village, Kothagudem mandal for development of Budget Hotel with project cost of Rs.1236.00 lakhs ( Central share – Rs.370.80 lakhs & State share – Rs.865.20 lakhs )

Present Status of work: Ground Floor,First Floor & 2^nd Floor civil works nearing completion.  1^st floor furniture work is completed.  Balance minor Civil & Electrical work is in progress.  Banquet hall & suit rooms modification work is in progress.

• Eco-Toursim Developmentat Kinnerasani Wild life Sanctuary at Kinnerasani : The Forest Department has accorded permission to execute the components for the Eco Tourism activities in Kinnerasani with project cost of Rs.1077.00 lakhs( Central share – Rs.323.10 lakhs & State share – Rs.753.90 lakhs )

Present Status of work: Glass house brickwork and plastering has completed. False ceiling work is in progress. Cottages civil works are completed.  Mockup room (Furniture & Sanitary ) is under progress.

3. Schemes Implemented under the Department:

• Prasad Scheme is implementing at Bhadrachalam Temple.

Staff & Contact Details :

     District  Tourism Officer

    Bhadradri Kothagudem District