Odisha Tourism to hold roadshows to attract international tourists

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to hold roadshows across the country and abroad to attract international tourists and private sector investment in the tourism sector.    

It was decided at the Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting chaired by chief secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy here.

It was also decided to organize roadshows in Kulalampur, Bangkok, Bali, and Jakarta to attract international tourist and private sector investment in the tourism sector.    

The chief secretary also directed to conduct roadshows in Chennai, Ahmadabad, Varanasi, Raipur, Surat, and Jaipur.

The roadshows on Odisha Tourism have been organized at Delhi, Kochi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

On average, around 1.5 crore domestic tourists are visiting Odisha each year against around 1 lakh of foreign tourists. The state tourism can stay vibrant in major parts of a year with a footfall of more domestic tourists.

The government has also decided to take up nine tourism circuits and 13 destinations in different parts of the state for development under new tourism promotion activities, informed tourism secretary Vishal Kumar Dev.

The major ones include the development of the Rambha tourism cluster, the Kantilo cluster, Gandhi circuit, Sun City Konark, Budhist circuit, Daringibadi complex, Samuka Beach, Konark marine drive eco-retreat, houseboat operations in different places, surfing festival at Puri and DAK Bungalow trail in Odisha.

“In the first phase, the houseboat operations would be started in Chilika and Bhitarkanika. The boats would be run by the private operators on operation and management basis,” said Dev.

He said the surfing festival at Puri will be organized in tie-up with the Surfing Federation of India and steps will be taken to make it an annual event.