Hyderabad, August 18: Visit Hyderabad, an initiative by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model is expected to be launched by this year-end.
The autonomous body formed for the initiative already has membership from local hotels, international and domestic airline operators, as well as government agencies. It is currently in the process of attracting bus and tour operators as stakeholders in the initiative.
The initiative has gathered support from the state government for financial assistance and the stakeholders are currently analysing the funding model for the initiative. Furthermore, the body will also send a representation to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) to attract international MICE clients to India.
The body will also promote the concept at major MICE conferences in Sydney, Dubai, US and Madrid. After the launch of the initiative, plans are also afoot to launch a website with links of all the stakeholders.
Speaking about the development, Jaideep Anand, General Manager, Ista Hyderabad opined, “This initiative has helped us to develop new clientele and we are now offering rates competitive to Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.
The Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Tourism (MoT) will also help in promoting the Visit Hyderabad initiative by presenting Hyderabad as a major MICE destination on the global platform.”
Even before the official launch of the initiative, the stakeholders will be hosting two major international sporting events in the city. The World Badminton Championship (August 8-13, 2009) was hosted at the Gachibowli Stadium. While, the 2009 World Snooker Championship will be held from November 15-29, 2009 in Hyderabad, which will help in booking about 500 rooms across the city’s hotels for a period of 15 days.
When asked about the source markets for promotional activities, Pavithran Nambiar, General Manager, Novotel Hyderabad and Hyderabad International Convention Centre stated, “We will not look at geographical promotions but will extend relations with international associations to have their conferences, exhibitions, cultural events in the city. Besides, we will also look at attracting events from specific sectors like IT and pharma which drive business in India and events like International Conference on Frontiers of Interface between Statistics and Sciences for which India is an important market.”
-Agencies