A three-day Odisha Travel Bazaar will be hosted in the city from Friday to showcase the potential of tourist destinations in the state.
FICCI in association with Odisha government is organising the second edition of the event that will act as a platform to bring together tour operators from across the globe alongside local operators, stakeholders and policy makers under one roof to promote the state’s tourist destinations.
Around 60 foreign tour operators from countries — such as Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Netherlands, UK and USA — will take part in the event. This apart, 16 leading domestic tour operators from Ahmedabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam will congregate to interact and will engage themselves with 56 sellers comprising travel agencies and hoteliers from Odisha.
“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,” said tourism secretary Vishal Dev.
The invited tour operators took pre-event familiarisation trips from October 2 to 4 to various tourist locations of the state to experience the state’s richness and vibrancy. They will also be taken to local sightseeing of Bhubaneswar and to the Heritage Walk at Old Town of Bhubaneswar, Udaygiri and Khandagiri. Also, a special light-and-sound show will be organised at Dhauli for them.
“In recent years, national and international tourist flow in the state has been going up with the declaration of Bhu-baneswar airport as an international airport,” added Dev.
A special panel discussion on “Taking Odisha tourism to the next level” will be held comprising leading stakeholders from the Tourism industry of Odisha, leading Foreign tour Operators and Domestic tour Operators. There are 357 identified tourist destinations all over 30 districts. “Odisha is rapidly becoming a preferred tourist destination in India with its various tourists’ attractions ranging from national parks, pristine and clean beaches, heritage monuments and tribal culture. With such product mix, Odisha has huge untapped tourism potential yet to be explored, for tourists and investors alike,” said tourism minister Ashok Panda.
