BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state saw an encouraging growth in foreign tourist arrivals post-Covid pandemic, this hasn’t been the case in the last tourism season.
Tour operators and stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality sectors of the state have witnessed a decline in leisure travellers from different countries from August 2023 to April this year, which is the peak season for inbound tourism. They pointed out that the number of international visitors had grown by 875 per cent in 2022 in comparison to 2021, as per the Tourism department statistics. But there has been a slump again.
In 2022, the total foreign tourist arrivals stood at 22,121 with the highest 3,446 arrivals from the US followed by 2,378 from Japan, 1,476 from Germany and 1,345 from the UK. The international footfall was only 2,269 in 2021 and 10,206 in 2020, as per the Tourism department.
According to the travel trends of international tourists, while Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark circuit is one of the famous circuits for them, those from European countries also visit tribal areas and wildlife parks.
Chairman of the Odisha chapter of Indian Association of Tour Operators Gagan Sarangi said going by the 2022 trend, hopes were high for a further increase in international tourist footfalls to match the pre-Covid level. “However, there were negligible bookings this time from both group and individual international travellers since August-September when tourists from US, Europe and UK start coming in. Although group travels will happen during Rath Yatra, they are mostly for religious purposes and not leisure,” he said.
Secretary of Hotel Association of Puri Raj Kishore Patra said while Puri has witnessed a five per cent rise in domestic tourist arrivals post-Covid pandemic, that of foreign tourists has only been dipping. “Compared to 2022, only 1 per cent of foreign travellers have stayed in Puri in the last tourism season,” he said.
Usually, such travellers stay in either Bhubaneswar or Puri and travel to Konark, Chilika and tribal districts in southern Odisha, with their days of stay ranging between three and 15.
Admitting to the poor international tourist footfall, chairman of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha JK Mohanty explains the reasons. “One of the factors is that there has been no aggressive marketing of state’s tourism in many countries after the Centre closed down all its tourism offices and assigned the embassies to promote tourism two years back. Embassies do not have trained manpower to do the job,” he said. Although the state has direct air connectivity with Dubai, Singapore, Bangkok and now Malaysia, the out-bound tourism to Dubai and South East Asian countries has increased but not vice-versa. “There aren’t enough road shows happening in these countries. There is a need for continuous marketing of Odisha’s tourism products in these countries to bring in travellers,” he added.
