Tourist arrival in Odisha has reached all time high during 2017 with inflow of around 141, 11, 243 tourists marking a growth of around 9.23% over the last year.
The arrival of foreign tourist has gone up to 1 lakh recording a growth of around 31% over last year. Similarly, the arrival of domestic tourist has also increased around 9% with 140.11 lakh tourist arrival. USA, UK, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, China, Netherland, Australia and CIS are the top 10 foreign countries from where more number of tourists have come to Odisha during 2017.
More number of domestic tourists have come from the states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, MP, AP, Chhatisragh, UP, Jharkhand, Tamilnadu, Bihar and Uttarakhnd.
This has been known from the Tourism Advisory Committee meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi in secretariat conference hall today.
Considering the suggestions put in the meeting, Padhi directed the Tourism department to ensure sanitation and cleanliness measures in tourist spots. Sri Padhi directed to identify 20 most popular tourist spots in the first phase for this drive and gradually take up other spots in phased manner.
In the view of international flight operations and increase in tourist flow to the state, the meeting deliberated on attracting more investments in hotel industry. The strategy for attracting the international chain hotels were discussed and decided in the meeting. Chief Secretary Sri Padhi directed to identify sites in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Daringibadi, Koraput, Rayagada and other tourist destinations of the state for allotment to the hoteliers.
It was also decided to organize road shows in top 10 countries from where more number of tourists come to Odisha. The meeting further decided for starting e-visa facility at Biju Pattnaik International Airport, Bhubaneswar.