BHUBANESWAR: Odisha bagged twin awards at the first edition of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Travel and Tourism Excellence Awards held in New Delhi.
The State received the awards in the category of best tourism website and eco-tourism. The lucid interface of the newly designed portal of Odisha Tourism, odishatourism.gov.in - includes an array of stylishly-arranged modules which help to catapult the visitor’s imagination to holiday in the State.
Odisha Ecotourism, which bagged best eco-tourism initiative in the country, has been developed by taking local communities as stakeholders unlike other States. Minister for Tourism and Culture Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi received the trophy for best website and a citation at a ceremony in New Delhi on Friday.
Speaking on the occasion, Panigrahi said nine tourism circuits across categories have been identified in Odisha which have immense tourism potential.
“We need to unwrap the State in areas of tourism and have a global footprint of Odisha in tourism sector,” he said. The revamped website of Odisha Tourism was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik last month.
On the eco-tourism front, 40 destinations in different landscapes of Odisha have been developed by the Forest Department enrolling more than 600 forest-dependent community members, mostly rural women and tribals, in the last three years. Forest and Environment Secretary Mona Sharma said major share of revenue generated from eco-tourism goes directly to the community engaged and this has been the uniqueness of Odisha eco-tourism model. “We are trying for more innovations in the field to showcase the diversity and beauty of the State,” she added.