VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

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, heri...

Today a light drizzle stopped the hot air balloon in its track.  This morning's flying  event was cancelled due to inclement weather. This evening a display of the balloons tethered (tied to the ground) and lit up will be displayed at NTR grounds.  Visitors to the event were mainly Vizagites. It will be interesting to know how many real "tourists" came to the venue. I am not talking about the event organizers and the 15-20 foreigner balloonists. I am talking about  genuine domestic or international  tourists. Then divide the expenditure by the incremental number of tourists who visited and we will get a huge per tourist expenditure.  The figure for expenditure is being mentioned as 5 crores. Say we got around 100 tourists that too is a generous figure. We will end up with something like 7L per tourist! Sounds awesome doesn't it? Incidentally this is all public money. That means your money and mine. Cheers. Don't just read this ... share it...