By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, October 23, 2019: The Odisha government will take up nine tourism circuits and 13 destinations in different parts of the state to promote tourism promotion activities.

The state government on Wednesday approved a slew of projects and initiatives in the tourism advisory committee meeting held under the chairmanship of chief secretary Asit Tripathy.

The major projects included development of Rambha tourism cluster, Kantilo cluster, Gandhi circuit, Sun City Konanark, Budhist circuit, Daringibadi complex, Samuka Beach, Konark marine drive eco-retreat, house boat operations in different places, surfing festival at Puri and DAK Bungalow trail in Odisha.

“In the first phase, the house boat operations would be started in Chilika and Bhitarkanika. The boats would be run by the private operators on operation and management basis. The surfing festival at Puri will be organized in a tie-up with Surfing Federation of India and steps will be taken to make it an annual event. The road shows on Odisha Tourism have been organized at Delhi, Kochi, Kolkata, Gowahati, Bangalore and Hyderabad,” said tourism secretary Vishal Dev.

Chief secretary asked the tourism department to focus on the development of tourist spots across India to attract domestic tourists. Tripathy also directed to conduct road shows in Chennai, Ahmadabad, Vanarasi, Raipur, Surat and Jaipur. It was also decided to organize the road shows organized at Kulalampur, Bangkok, Bali and Jakarta to attract international tourist and private sector investment in tourism sector.

Roughly about1.5 cr domestic tourists are visiting Odisha each year against around one lakh foreign tourists.