In order to increase foreign tourists’ visits to Odisha, the State Tourism department has decided to participate in five international travel and tour festivals to highlight the State’s tourist spots and culture overseas, sources in the department said.
The idea is to present Odisha as a preferred tourism destination in India, they said.
The international tourism festivals that the department is targeting include Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin (ITB Berlin), World Travel Market in london, FITUR in Madrid, BIT International Tourism Exchange in Milan and a festival hosted by the United States Tour Operators’ Association in New York.
This was decided at a departmental review meeting held on Monday. The department is also planning to organise road shows in and outside the country to attract more tourists to the State, the sources said.
The road shows would be held this year in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Surat, Visakhapatnam and Ahmedabad, from where Odisha gets many domestic tourists, the sources added. last year, road shows were organised in Bangkok, Thailand, and Siam-Reap, Cambodia.