Lavasa targets 1.5 lakh visitors
With new tourism offerings and hotels coming up in India’s first smart city, Lavasa is all set to get record number of visitors this year.
Lavasa, touted as India’s first smart city, is adding more products to its portfolio every year to attract visitors. Rajiv Duggal, Chief Executive Officer, Lavasa Corporation Limited, reveals, “Lavasa will always remain special because of multiple reasons ranging from being India’s first smart city, the awesome weather, enchanting beauty that changes from day to night, a mesmerising lake front, over 50 and more kinds of cuisines on offer, addition of world class tourism activities and above all the love of 11 lakh tourists with average 1.8 day stay at Lavasa every year.”
In fact, Duggal said that 2016 should see this figure reach 1.5 lakh with an average stay of 2 nights, thanks to the new offerings in tow. “Our adventure activity based camp – Xthrill – has added many new innovative products and continues to be a favourite with corporate team building. We have added the Jetovator along with new water based activities. We intend to commence nature walks with star- gazing in March 2016. The first Novotel Resort, along with a Holiday Inn Express property, are slated to go live this year.”
Lavasa is also a popular destination for many events, says Duggal. “Apart from large events that we do once every quarter, this year we are planning on a large film festival that will take place at Lavasa, and we expect to showcase some of the best movies from around our region. We also intend to commence roadshows in key tourism generating markets this year. Medical tourism will be another strong focus for us,” he added.
Another highlight is the Lavasa International Convention Centre (LICC), which is the third largest standalone international convention centre in the country, claims Duggal. “Business travel to Lavasa is large, with the addition of over 300 hotel rooms in 2016, and we should see this number increase even further. We do around 206 days of conferencing at this moment,” he added.