BALLOON FESTIVAL ARAKU ~THE FLIP SIDE~

14 to 16 November 2017

As a tourist event this was most ineffective. Visitors to the event were mainly Vizagites with a few from surrounding districts and Hyderabad.

Pretty pictures but that's it

It will be argued that the images of the colourful balloons floating over pristine green meadows inserted into emedia and airline magazines will give Araku a great boost. True, but when the tourists come where will the stay? Where will they go? What will they do? Already hordes of tourists from Bengal and other states come in the colder months stressing the town to its limits. These are quantity tourists with low power capita expenditure and is the worst thing that can happen to this eco sensitive part of our Eastern Ghats. Araku is damaged goods it is hardly ready for any more tourists. 

Did we sell our tourism to those who came?

The organisers did not even take the opportunity to sell our destination to the foreign balloon crew. They had no clue of the social, heritage, geological, cultural aspects of our ghats and the ARAKU area. A few of them took the trouble to find out more of Vizag and went to Simahchalam and Ryuthu Bazaar. They were simply brought to ARAKU where they were put up in nice rented accommodation away from ARAKU town near Madageda.

Meanwhile ARAKU town was as usual ... filthy muddy crowded and with road sides smelling of human excreta. Fields filled with plastic left over from the recent karthik masam picnics greeted visitors even in the ghat road. Though an effort was made to lift the garbage from near the market on 14th morning there was too much of it to make a difference. Incidentally even the Bosebeda balloon take off site was left plastic strewn as they did not even have a garbage bin. So much for fantastic event management. 

The most important tourism road of Araku alongside the tribal museum leading to the coffee museum and APTDC Mayuri which was recently concrete topped was already pot holed, water logged and sides were filled with garbage. It occurred to me that a fraction of the expense on the 3 day balloon fest could have made the town clean and attractive for tourists for years and years to come.

Experts say that events for tourism are not effective on the long run because once the show is over the reason for coming is over. Building real value has a long term impact.

The Euphoria is over. Let us do the math. It will be interesting to know how many real "tourists" came to the venue. I am not talking about the event organisers and the 15-20 foreigner balloonists. I am talking about genuine domestic or international tourists.

The official sanctioned figure for the balloon event is 3 crores. The actual expenditure is being mentioned as 5 crores plus. Say we got around 200 real tourists (doubtful). We will end up with something like 2.5L per tourist!

And they want to do this every year! Great fun for event organisers! 

Incidentally this is all OUR MONEY. Your money. Not something to give away for a few to have a good time.

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