BHUBANESWAR: From a 10.8 per cent (pc) growth in the year 2019, foreign tourist arrivals in Odisha have plunged by 77 pc now. The India Tourism Statistics-2022 released by the Ministry of Tourism recently stated that Odisha’s domestic tourist arrivals in 2020 and 2021 dropped by 19.04 per cent (pc) and foreign tourist arrivals in the two years by 77.7 pc.
According to the report, when the State was reeling under the Covid-19 pandemic, 46 lakh domestic tourists came to Odisha while the number was 10,206 in case of foreign tourists. This number reduced to 37 lakh in domestic tourism and 2,269 as far as foreign tourism is concerned in 2021. Given these numbers, the Ministry has placed Odisha in the 18th rank in domestic tourism and 20th rank in foreign tourism among top-20 states in both the categories.
During the pre-Covid period, at least 1 crore domestic travellers and 1 lakh international visitors used to arrive in Odisha.The report also pointed out the lack of adequate star category hotels in the State. There are a total of 22 star hotels with 1,124 rooms.
This apart, unlike the past years, Sun Temple at Konark did not figure among the top-5 Central monuments drawing the maximum domestic visitors. The only World Heritage Site of Odisha slipped to rank-7 when it comes to domestic arrivals in 2021-22. It got 6.72 lakh domestic tourists and 314 foreign tourists in the year.
Although, there was a growth in tourist footfalls (26.7 pc domestic and 121.1 pc foreign) at Konark if compared to 2020-21 when it saw 5.3 lakh domestic tourists and just 142 international visitors. Among the other ASI-protected monuments/sites, the Ratnagiri hills saw a drop of tourist footfalls at 20.9 pc between 2020 and 2022.
Officials in the Tourism department said several steps are being taken by the State government to bring the industry back to the pre-Covid level. Be it the safe tourism media campaigns or dropping prices of eco retreats to draw more people. They said more people participated in the eco retreats this year in January due to low prices.
ODISHA TOURISM IN NUMBERS
46 lakh domestic tourists, 10,206 foreign tourists in 2020
37 lakh domestic tourists, 2,269 foreign arrivals in 2021
Pre-Covid: Odisha saw at least 1 crore domestic travellers and 1 lakh international visitors