Tourism a top priority sector, says Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has declared tourism and the creation of hospitality infrastructure as the State’s top priority sector.

Speaking at the inaugural of the two-day Collectors’ conference at the Secretariat on Wednesday, Mr. Naidu noted that projects like Wonderla Amusement Park coming up in Visakhapatnam and Imagicaa World in Tirupati would be game-changers in the tourism sector, while observing that its potential was largely untapped.

Principal Secretary (Tourism) Ajay Jain informed the Chief Minister that during the recent CII Partnership Summit-2025, the Tourism Department had signed 209 MoUs worth about ₹30,000 crore across 26 districts, and it demonstrated widespread interest in the development of tourism infrastructure throughout the State.

Mr. Naidu told the officials of the Industries Department to take steps for excluding 82,000 acres of land belonging to the AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation from Section 22 A of the Registration Act so that they could be made available to the industries. He called for an action plan to hone the skills of youth to help the government achieve the employment generation goals.

Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan told the Collectors to focus on improving road connectivity to the tribal hamlets as it was a must for development, and on the implementation of Palle Pandugaprogramme.

He exhorted them to ensure the delivery of citizen services in alignment with the goals set by the coalition government, and to enable the Gram Panchayats to generate their own revenues to reduce their dependence on devolution of funds by the State to some extent.