more-in The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority has come to find the urgent need to reinvent itself to bolster the image of tourism, in addition to churning substantial revenue on the lines of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The World Tourism Day celebrations scheduled on September 27 have paved the way for providing the right platform to the department to initiate its action plan to rope in all the universities in the State, with a broader perspective of making students as brand ambassadors of State tourism. The APTA has addressed letters to the authorities of all universities, seeking their participation in the Celebrations - 2017. The universities located in the five tourism zones would organise zonal-level competitions for the engineering students in fine arts, including four categories — Poster theme painting, Quiz competitions, Photography contest and Paper presentation. Each zone has been alloted ?5 lakh towards prizes for the winners. APTA district officer (Chiittoor) D.V. Chandramouli Reddy told The Hindu that involving students in tourism promotion was altogether a very effective and novel idea. Brimming with youth and dynamism, the students were capable of generating powerful ideas, and the same would come out through their effective participation in the celebrations. The Tirupati zonal competitions (Chittoor and Nellore districts) would be organised by the State Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology, a joint venture of the State and the Central governments. The Srikrishna Devaraya University would conduct the events for Anantapur, Kadapa and Kurnool districts. The Vizag zone would be taken care of by the Andhra University, followed by other regions of Krishna and Konaseema by the respective area varsities. Students could draw ideas from the various tourist attractions. They should focus on the tourism treasure available for poster painting, paper presentation and photography contest, depicting their ideas of history, archaeology, sculpture and temple art, resorts and hotel management. He expressed happiness that a number of youth were showing a lot of interest in tourism and hotel management arenas. The official said the universities entrusted with the organising of competitions would soon send circulars to the professional colleges. “Seen from a larger perspective, the students will play a dynamic role in tourism promotion, because they form the talent pool for research and exploration. Already students pursuing hotel management and food technology are doing their best in promoting food festivals and resorts management,” the official said.

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