Second edition of Odisha Travel Bazaar to begin on Oct 5

Bhubaneswar: The second edition of the Odisha Travel Bazaar (OTB) will begin from October 5, said an official on Thursday.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the three-day event at Mayfair Convention here.

The Odisha Travel Bazaar is organized by the Department of Tourism and FICCI.

This year’s OTB will witness the participation of 60 foreign tour operators from 23 countries like Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Netherlands, UK and USA.

16 leading domestic tour operators from Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam will congregate here.

They will engage with 56 sellers comprising of travel agencies and hoteliers from Odisha to showcase and sell the Odisha travel product internationally and within the country.

Invited foreign tour operators, domestic tour operators took pre-event familiarization (FAM) trips in different tourist locations of Odisha to experience the richness and vibrancy of the state.

Apart from the FAM trip and one to one business meetings, the tour operators will be taken to local site seeing of Bhubaneswar, Heritage walk at the old town of Bhubaneswar, Udaygiri & Khandagiri. Also, a special light and sound show will be organised at Dhauli for them.

Compared to last year, there has been a surge in the number of foreign buyers from 45 last year to 60 participants this year. Similarly, domestic tour operators increased from 10 last year to 16 participants this year.