BHUBANESWAR: The Tourism department is revising the existing tourism policy and plans to open a facilitation cell to help the hospitality sector investors with approvals and other support in the next six months.
As far as tourism development is concerned, the department has identified 15 ‘priority destinations’ with land banks and also plans to increase the star category hotel rooms in the state. This was informed by Tourism director Mansi Nimbhal at the sixth edition of Odisha Tourism conclave, organised by the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha on Wednesday. Nimbhal informed that the facilitation cell is a first-of-its-kind initiative by any state Tourism department in the country.
In the tourism season of 2024-25, more than one crore domestic and foreign tourists visited Odisha. While foreign tourists were low in numbers, the number of domestic tourists jumped by three times compared to the pandemic period. “This indicates that domestic tourists are looking for newer experiences and destinations. This is the advantage that Odisha has over the regular tourist destinations in North or South, which are now overcrowded and saturated,” she said.
The state is also revising its existing Odisha State Tourism Policy 2022 to make it more progressive and beneficial for the investors in terms of incentives, land allotment and approvals, among other things. The state is also coming with new homestay and heritage policies.
Going beyond the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar-Puri zone and the USP of spiritual tourism, the department has identified 15 destinations which will offer diverse tourism products including eco-tourism and cultural tourism to travellers, said department joint secretary Binod Jena while speaking at the occasion. “We have identified nearly 5,000 acre of investible land in these destinations which include Hirakud, Kolab, Chilika, Satkosia, Satpada, Bhitarkanika, Deomali, Kotpad and Similipal for tourism projects by private investors. We are in the process of developing master plans for each of these 15 destinations,” he added.