Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha unable to attract foreign tourists

The Bhitarkanika National Park had received global exposure in the wake of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources team that had recently visited the park for lijely conferment of world heritage tag on the wetland site.
But, it has failed to pay dividends in terms of translating into more foreign tourist inflow. Out of a total of 66,971 international tourists who visited Odisha last year, only 211 visited the park. In 2014, 207 foreigners had visited Bhitarkanika and the figure was 211 next year. This year, it is 150 foreigners till November end.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 28 December 2016.

Those involved in tourism sectors feel this situation can be attributed to the hassles in mandatory registration of overseas visitors. Foreigners who arrive here are victims of official apathy. At times, the foreign visitors are stranded at least an hour at the divisional forest office during verification.
An international tourist has to furnish photocopy of passport, visa and three recent passport size photos during the registration process. No fee is charged for registration. This registration is mandatory as per direction received from the bureau of immigration, ministry of home affairs.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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