Sunday, May 29, 2016

Foreign tourists give Puri a miss - drop in arrivals a matter of concern


Odisha is faced with a problem of drop in arrival of foreign tourists. Apparently, big-ticket events such as Nabakalebar of the Trinity in Puri is unable to attract foreign tourists to the state in expected numbers. It seems the foreign tourist footfall has declined in 2015, when the Nabakalebar was held, as compared to the previous year.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 29 May 2016.
As per statistics, a total of 71,426 foreigners visited the state in 2014 and it came down to 66,971 the next year when Nabakalebar was organised with great fanfare. The festival was witnessed by around 23,000 foreigners - this is around 35 per cent of the total foreign tourist footfall of the year. This is in spite of tall claims made by the state government that they had showcased the event in a manner that it created a global appeal.
Last year, only 0.83 per cent of foreigners, who visited the country, came to Odisha and this does not paint a happy picture. There are accusations that the state lacked in setting up foreigner-friendly tourist amenities. Moreover, the government's imposition of restriction on the visit of foreigners and researchers to the state's tribal areas have also had a negative effect and have played spoilsport.
Many tour operators felt that the foreigners are keen on exploring areas beyond the Puri-Konark-Bhubaneswar triangle. Obviously, the tourism policy needs to be modified since the state has only been highlighting these three places. Tourists would want to explore other areas like the handloom clusters and tribal zones. But, there are no government packages for tourism in such areas.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

World's smallest porpoise of Mexico is on the verge of extinction

Coca-Cola to stop production of its beverage in Venezuela because of sugar shortage

Melting of Totten Glacier due to global warming could raise sea levels by three meters


Moody’s mind flits from Black Money to White House (satire)

Lord Shiva and Durga on home delivery and drones (satire)

Didi plans new conquests via Rabindrasangeet (satire)


Daniel Craig is through with James Bond - turns down £68 million offer from MGM

Snoop Dogg and Lucy Liu will be seen together in thriller 'Future World'

Kavita Kaushik to play the role of an Army doctor in TV show “Dr. Bhanumati on Duty”


Was the EgyptAir crash an act of terrorism by the ISIS?

Suicide bombings in Baghdad kill 43 - brings total death in 7 days to more than 145

One more Chibok girl rescued - she was kidnapped along with 275 others in April 2014

No comments:

Post a Comment