BHUBANESWAR: With an aim to popularise the luxury ‘hop-on hop-off’ bus services, Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) plans to embark upon aggressive advertisement strategies.
The project, which was launched in a big way in 2008, had managed an occupancy rate of just around five per cent during the initial period and rose to 27 per cent this year.
Taking this into consideration, OTDC will start an effective campaigning and add new routes to attract more customers.
“Internationally-designed kiosks with small souvenir shops would be set up at every ‘hop-on hop-off’ bus stoppage in the city,” said OTDC chairman Jyotiskar Mohapatra, adding that plans are afoot to open more ticket counters. The souvenir shops, designed on the lines of those in metros, will aim at attracting international tourists.
Artistic billboards on tourist spots and luxury buses would be put up at strategic points in the city including the routes through which the buses would pass.
The OTDC already has tie-ups with different shopping centres and amusement parks for providing discounts to ticket-holders of the bus service.
“Though the revenue collection since inception of the service has not been satisfactory, we hope it would rise to 80 to 85 per cent by the next fiscal through proper marketing,” Mohapatra added.
Under ‘hop-on-hop-off’ bus services, OTDC runs seven 52-seater air-conditioned large buses and 13-seater buses.