Bhubaneswar: With an aim to attract more foreign tourists to Odisha, the state government has planned to organize road shows in 10 countries from where more number of tourists visited the state in recent years . This was informed by the Tourism Secretary Mona Sharma .
The state government is stressing more on development of hotel industry. In this regard, the government will be auctioning 10 identified plots for construction of hotels in Bhubaneswar and has directed to identify sites in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Daringibadi, Koraput, Rayagada, and other tourist destinations for allotment to the hoteliers.
The decision was taken at a meeting held under chairmanship of Chief Secretary A P Padhi with representatives of hotels and restaurants association and tour operators on Thursday.
“The state government is going to create a land bank of 1,000 acres for development of tourism sector along with several new hotel chains in the state. We have 1,000 acres of land but we will be doing field visits because suitable patches are important to establish new hotels,” said Sharma.
USA, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, China, Netherland, Australia and the commonwealth of independent states (CIS) are the top 10 foreign countries from where more number of tourists visited Odisha during 2017. Odisha has recorded 9.23 % growth in total tourist arrival as over 1.41 crore tourists including 1 lakh foreigners visited the state in 2017 which is all time high. The state govt has claimed over 31% growth over last year in foreign tourist arrival.
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar & Uttarakhnd are the states from where maximum domestic tourists visited #Odisha in 2017.
In 2017, the state government has cleared 12 investment projects in tourism sector with investment intent of around Rs 585 crore. Odisha has so far developed around 30 ecotourism spots. Biju Pattnaik International Airport will soon have e-visa facility.
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