Tourism Minister K J Alphons today presented National Tourism Awards 2016-17 in New Delhi. The awards were given in various segments of the Travel, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. Andhra Pradesh bagged the first prize in state category for comprehensive development of tourism.

The state got the prize for promoting Andhra Pradesh Tourism as a global tourism brand. Kerala bagged the second prize for comprehensive development of tourism. Rajasthan and Goa jointly shared the third prize. The awardees were chosen on the basis of several parameters including tourist footfall, initiative of the state government and policies taken to make the state tourist friendly.

Speaking on the occasion, K J Alphons  said, the Tourism sector has generated 14.62 million jobs in the country in the last four years. Mr Alphons also said, there was a growth of more than 14 per cent in number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals last year.

Talking to AIR, Resident Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh in Delhi, Praveen Prakash expressed happiness that Andhra Pradesh has been bagging first prize for two consecutive years.

Talking to AIR, Principle secretary of Tourism, Rajasthan, Kuldeep Ranka said, the state has aggressively used the marketing and IT to attract visitors.