VIJAYAWADA: The three-day India International Travel Mart (IITM) organised at Bengaluru concluded on Sunday, with Andhra Pradesh adding two awards to it's tally - Best State for Religious Tourism and Best State for MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). 

Day 1 of the event bore witness to as many as 1000 enquiries regarding tourism opportunities at Tirupati while Visakhapatnam found favour with corporates searching for an off-beat destination to conduct business conferences. 

“The corporates wanted an alternative off-beat destination in India apart from Goa and thus we handed our own offering on a platter to them. As they showed interest in Visakhapatnam, numerous inquiries followed suit,” said Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) CEO and  Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) managing director (MD) Pravin Kumar. Overwhelming interest regarding Tirupati and Visakhapatnam among the event visitors prompted the organisers to present the above-mentioned awards.
Kumar spoke on the importance of Andhra Pradesh in the field of tourism on Day 2 (Saturday). 
“Tourism is one of the key growth escalators of the country. We have been striving hard to develop them. At present, the development of an adventure complex, with adventure sports, at Gandikota; also known as the Grand Canyon of India is our top priority,” he said.

He also highlighted other programmes undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh authorities to the investors and tourism enthusiasts present at the event. 

“Andhra Pradesh is one of the partner states of IITM whose objective is to provide opportunities for professionals from the tourism industry to meet and showcase a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to Indian and international travel professionals. This is am an arena for people to meet, network, negotiate and conduct business,” added the APTA CEO. IITM was inaugurated by Andhra Pradesh Tourism and Culture department,  principal secretary Praveen Kumar and  APTDC MD Pravin Kumar.