BHUBANESWAR: Several foreign tour operators on Thursday evinced interest for tie ups and special collaboration with domestic tour operators during a special interactive session organised as part of Odisha Travel Bazaar 2019.
During a discussion they enquired about various tourist destinations and were excited about opportunities that Odisha market has to offer. The interactive session on opportunities in Odisha tourism and travel market was convened ahead of the scheduled B2B meetings from Friday.
Tourism and Culture Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi highlighted major tourist destinations of the State, air connectivity, status on inbound travellers, accommodation facilities at spots and business environment.
“The session was successful as many foreign tour operators expressed satisfaction with the discussion and some of them evinced interest for collaboration with the domestic tour operators,” Panigrahi said.
The Minister urged foreign tour operators to highlight the tourism potential of Odisha in their respective countries and promote the State for more foreign footfall. Calling for extensive deliberation on various topics with domestic tour operators, he said the State Government is always committed for development of travel and tourism market.
The Tourism department arranged familiarisation trips for both, foreign and domestic tour operators. While one team went on tribal tour, the other took part in the tour to Golden Triangle - Bhubaneswar, Konark-Puri and Chilika.
Tourism Director Sachin Jadhav, co-chairman of FICCI National Tourism Committee JK Mohanty and Chairman of FICCI-Eastern Region Tourism Committee Soubhagya Mohapatra were present.