Visakha Utsav fails to attract visitors
The much-hyped Visakha Utsav has failed to attract domestic and foreign tourists.
Visakhapatnam: The much-hyped Visakha Utsav (A mega tourism and cultural festival on East Coast of India) has failed to attract domestic and foreign tourists. Most of the people who attended the day one of the three-day utsav on Friday were Vizagites only and the people were disappointed over the poor arrangements and events. The district administration has come under criticism for organising the Utsav in the wrong time and failed to promote the brand image of Vizag in the virtual world.
Renowned sand sculpture artist Sudarsan Patnaik, who came to Vizag for the first time following the invitation from AP government, said that he heard Vizag is a beautiful city but what he heard was less. Patnaik’s sand sculpture with the theme Swachh Bharat-Swachh Visakha at RK Beach was a major attraction during the Utsav. “Unless the tourism calendar year (fixed dates for festivals) is fixed and the events promoted properly, attracting visitors is a most difficult task. Odisha has been organising the Puri and Konark festivals on fixed dates. Hence, Odisha somehow succeeded in attracting the tourists. Peak winter season is the best time to organise the beach carnivals and festivals,” he added.
“Failure of officials to give wide publicity to the Utsav, vertical spilt between minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and minister Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu over the Utsav and the unorganised manner of conducting the events led to poor turnout,” says B. Anil Kumar, an AU student.