Hotels fleecing tourists in Araku Valley

Visakhapatnam: Taking advantage of the rush, the private hotels in Araku Valley have started fleecing gullible tourists charging abnormal prices for the rooms, food and local transport. According to many tourists, who had visited the Valley during the last weekend (three days holiday period) told this correspondent that the Valley was more expensive than the city, which offered the most comfortable prices.

According to local MLA Kidari Sarvesawra Rao, the private hotels charged as high as Rs 10,000 per room per day on last Saturday and Sunday which normally charged Rs 1,500 during the off season where as the APTDC Haritha Resorts, the best in the Valley with all the comforts and good food and having the only swimming pool in the Valley charged as little as Rs 2,000.

On December10 (second Saturday) 5,200 tourists visited the Borra Caves and Araku Valley and 8,200 on December 11 (Sunday). Most of the tourists returned in the evening after visiting all the important tourist sites where as some who loved the place coughed up a lot of money for the hotel charges. In fact, Haritha Resorts at Araku Valley, Ananthagiri and Jingle Bells (Tyda) was sold out from October 15 to January 15 leaving little choice to the late comers.

The MLA in a meeting at Peda Labudu village near Araku Valley on December 10 told Collector Praveen Kumar and other senior officials that the exploitation of private hotels should be stopped immediately in the interest of tourism.

The Collector in turn had asked the ITDA project officer to make an inquiry and take appropriate steps. Tour operators put the blame on the government for not increasing the rooms in the Valley though it has been making announcements every year, giving advantage to the private hotels.

“Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu himself announced construction of cottages at Lambasinghi, the coldest place in South India, but it never took off,’’ said a travel and tour operator condition of anonymity.