Tourism Minister of Odisha Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, along with Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS and others was present at the Odisha Tourism Roadshow organized in Kolkata.

This was conducted by industry major FICCI.

Odisha Roadhsow has been successfully conducted in other cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Kochi (Kerala) before the road show came to Kolkata.
The road show highlighted on heritage tourism, ethnic tourism, eco-tourism, spiritual tourism amongst others.

Odisha is also a sporting destination and this has been a key factor to push up foreign tourist arrivals in the state.

The state boasts of 18 protected areas, two national parks, Buddhist circuit apart from the famous Golden Triangle Heritage Circuit of Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark.

Speaking at the event, Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi said “Bengal and Odisha have many things in common. So we must focus on the similarities and enhance the tourism of both the states. Odisha has so much more to offer than the normal Golden Triangle Heritage Circuit route that the tourists frequently visit”.

Odisha saw a footfall of 1.5 crore tourists in 2018 and the state hopes to see the numbers rise to 2.5 crore in 2021.

Priyanka Dutta