Bhubaneswar: The curtains will go up on the second edition of the Odisha Travel Bazaar, with Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha, inaugurating the three-day event at Mayfair Convention, here on October 5,2018. The three-day mega travel bazaar (October 5-7, 2018) is organized by the Department of Tourism, Government of Odisha and FICCI.
The Inaugural ceremony of OTB 2018 will also be attended and addressed by Shri Ashok Chandra Panda, Minister for Tourism, Odia Language Literature and Culture, Government of
Odisha; Mr. R Balakrishnan, Development Commissioner cum-ACS, Government of Odisha; Mr. Vishal Kumar Dev, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Tourism Department and Sports & Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha; Mr. J.K. Mohanty, Chairman, Tourism Panel, FICCI Odisha State Council and CMD, Swosti Group and Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General,
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, USA and 16 leading Domestic Tour Operators from Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Varanasi and Visakapatnam, will congregate to interact and will engage themselves 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 FTO’s & DTO’s will be taken to local site seeing of Bhubaneswar, Heritage walk at old town of Bhubaneswar, Udaygiri &
Khandagiri . Also a special light and sound show will be organised at Dhauli for them.
As 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. There is also an increase in the pre scheduled B2B meetings between Buyers and Sellers which is 1800 this year compared with 1300 B2B meetings held in the first edition of OTB.
A presentation on ‘Odisha Tourism’ will be made by the Director and Addl. Secretary, Department of Tourism, Government of Odisha after the Inaugural Session.
A special panel discussion on “Taking Odisha Tourism to the next level” will be held. The panelists comprise of leading stakeholders from the Tourism industry of Odisha, leading Foreign
tour Operators and Domestic tour Operators.
The Department of Tourism, government Of Odisha has given special emphasis on Heritage, Culture & Tribal Tourism, Buddhist Tourism, Art & Craft, Eco & Wildlife Tourism and Pilgrimage tourism. Tourism in Odisha is an important component of the State economy, as the tourism sector contributes approximately 13% of the states GDP.
In recent years national and international tourist flow in the state has been going up with the declaration of Bhubaneswar airport as an international airport. The recent MoU between the
State Government and Air Asia ensures larger tourist footfalls from South East Asia in the state.
The state is also boosting the long coastlines, scenic eco-tourism site and rich legacy of hand loom and handicrafts as well as pilgrimage sites for Buddhism and Hinduism. The recent development of the commercial airport at Jharsuguda will serve as a major connectivity with the western part of Odisha and further boost tourism in western Odisha. The Department of Tourism, Government of Odisha recently organized Odisha Tourism Roadshows in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 18th September 2018 and Bangkok, Thailand on 19th September 2018 which received an overwhelming response and was well attended by the local outbound tour operators.
Additionally, Odisha is all set to host the 14th edition of the Hockey World Cup in November 2018 in which 16 world teams will be participating followed by a series of cultural
events poised to attract huge number of tourists to the State.
A Press Meet was organised for briefing on Odisha Travel Bazar. Bishal K Dev, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Department of Tourism & Sports, Archana Pattanaik, Director
Tourism, J.K. Mohanty, President HARAO and Rahul Chakrabarti, representing FICCI were present in the meet. Sri Dev said that as compared to 2016-17, footfalls of foreign and domestic
tourists to the state have been increased to 31 and 10 percent respectively. He was also hopeful that e-Tourist Visa will be carried out before World Cup Hockey.
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