Sambalpur in Odisha sees decline in foreign tourists and loss of revenue

Sambalpur in Odisha is worried about the drastic fall in the number of foreign tourists at the district's travel destinations and it has raised question marks over its consequent impact on the economy. The number of tourists to the district's seven tourist destinations has increased, no doubt, with each passing year but, there has been a sharp decline in the footfall of foreign tourists in that same period.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 24 November 2016.

There are seven identified tourist destinations namely, Sambalpur, Hirakud, Ushakothi, Huma, Chiplima, Gudguda and Kandhara. As per data compiled by the tourism department there has been a constant fall in the number of foreign visitors to these places during the past three years.
In Sambalpur, 374 foreign tourists visited in 2013. The next year, the number fell to 316 and in 2015, it was only 213.
In Hirakud - the figure was 130 foreign tourists in 2013. It fell to 93 in 2014 and 76 in 2015.
Similarly for the leaning temple of Huma - it attracted 68 foreign tourists in 2013, 67 in 2014 and 56 in 2015.
And in Chiplima - there were 86 foreign tourists in 2013, and it went down to 44 in 2014 and 32 in 2015.
The other two tourist destinations - Gudguda and Kandhara - did not attract any foreign tourist during the past three years.
Of course, all these have seen constant increase in the domestic tourist footfall in the past three years.
Various reasons have been put forth on this aspect. One is these is the lack of publicity. Then there are lack of adequate amenities at the tourist destinations and, added to these is the fact that some of the destinations lack good connectivity.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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