Odisha government to create 1000 acre land bank to boost tourism infrastructure
BHUBANESWAR: With lack of infrastructure proving a major disadvantage in the growth of travel and tourism sector, the State Government on Thursday decided to prepare a strategy for attracting investments from international hotel chains.
The strategy was discussed at Tourism Advisory Committee meeting held here under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi. It was decided to create a land bank of about 1,000 acres for development of tourism infrastructure, including hotels.The Tourism Department was asked to identify sites in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Daringibadi, Koraput, Rayagada and other tourist destinations in Odisha for allotment of land to the hoteliers. It was also decided to organise road shows in top 10 countries from where more number of tourists come to Odisha. The meeting further decided for starting e-visa facility at Biju Patnaik International Airport here.
“The total tourist arrival in the State during 2017 has reached an all-time high of 1,41,11,243 marking a growth of around 9.23 per cent over previous year. There is a 31 per cent growth in the footfall of foreign tourists to the State and this has been possible because of several tourism promotion initiatives,” said Muna Sharma, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department.
The top ten countries from where maximum number of tourists visited Odisha during 2017 include the USA, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, China, Netherlands, Australia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The arrival of domestic tourist has also increased by around 9 per cent with the arrival of 1.4 crore tourists. More number of domestic tourists have come from states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttarakhand, Sharma added.
Director, Tourism, Nitin Bhanudas Jawale said 37 tourism projects involving private sector investment have been approved through single window mechanism. Out of this, 12 projects with investment proposal of around Rs 585 crore have been cleared during 2017. The infrastructure in Shamuka project has been laid and is now ready for allocation to private players. Other issues like introducing common ticket system for tourist spots, rescheduling of opening hours of State Museum, hosting of the new website of OTDC were also discussed.
Emphasising on cleanliness and sanitation, Padhi asked the department to identify 20 most popular tourist spots in the first phase for this drive and gradually take up other spots in a phased manner.