'Thailand most preferred destination'

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Jan 28, 2014: Night life and leisure destination Thailand emerged as the most preferred tourist place for travel enthusiasts from 6 districts of coastal Andhra Pradesh and majority are from Vizag.  According to the data collected by the recently formed Tours and Travels Association of Andhra (TTAA) around 25,000 travelled to the leisure destination in Thailand in 2013.

Though there are many family and not much expensive destinations like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, people from coastal Andhra Pradesh preferred to chill out in Thailand.

The data has been collected from more than 100 tour operators and agents who arrange international tours in Vizag, Viziangaram, Srikakulam, West Godavari, East Godavari and Krishna districts.

“Cheap ‘all inclusive’ packages that are offered by most of these tour operators is one of the main reason for those who want to go to a foreign country prefer Thailand. Some offer packages to go to Thailand that are cheaper than domestic destinations,” observed TTAA, president, K Vijay Mohan.

Most of these tourists are going to Thailand from Kolkata, Chennai or Hyderabad due to lack of a direct flight from Vizag. According to the statistics, next comes Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal and some countries in middle East.  Interestingly many showed interest and traveled to Russian bloc countries like Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

“Some of the travel enthusiasts who are looking for new destinations are preferring these Russian Bloc countries, that are emerged as low cost destinations when compared to European countries. Of course packages to these bloc countries are little expensive than Thailand. But people looking for some new destinations are going there,” said TTAA, Vizag secretary, Dheeraj Praharaju

Other destinations also include Australia, New Zealand and China.

The TTAA also recently signed a MoU  with Bandung Tourism Promotional Board of Indonesia to promote Vizag in Bandung and vice versa.