Jajpur: Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a body blow to the tourism sector as several popular tourist destinations in the state have witnessed a decline of 9 lakh tourists during last three years as far as the data for October is concerned, a report said.
Popular tourist destinations like Konark Sun Temple, Puri Srimandir, Chilika Lake and the scenic sea beaches in the state have witnessed maximum footfall while the remaining fail to attract the tourists.
These sites have witnessed a drop of 9 lakh tourists during October of last three years while dip in footfall of foreign tourists is stated to be 9,000, thanks to the raging pandemic. This in turn has taken a heavy toll on the livelihood of people dependent on these sites. They are virtually struggling for survival.
Reports said over 14,07,482 Indian and 9,181 foreign tourists had visited various tourist destinations of Odisha in October 2018. However, these tourists have stopped visiting the state since March 2020 till date due to spread of Covid pandemic in the country.
According to Tourism department assistant director (Statistics) Pratapdev Raj, “Only 5,66,939 Indian and 210 foreign tourists visited the state in October 2021.”
Raj has submitted a detailed report on dip in arrival of tourists to the Union Ministry of Tourism January 19.
He has mentioned about 75 tourist sites in the state. The report mentions zero arrival of Indian and foreign tourists at Nandankanan Zoological Park near Bhubaneswar, Bhanjanagar, Aska, Patnagarh, Nrusinghanath, Khiching, Tikarpada, Sunabeda, Gupteswar, Dhabaleswar, Kapilash, Tara Tarini, Pathrajpur and Daringbadi.
The report said Puri witnessed the maximum footfall of tourists as compared to other tourist sites in the state. A maximum of 1,99,826 Indian and 13 foreign tourists have visited Puri while 3,381 Indian and no foreign tourist visited Konark during October 2021. Similarly, 84,793 Indian and 140 foreign tourists visited the Temple city of Bhubaneswar and 8,252 Indian and zero foreign tourists visited the Silk city Berhampur.
Likewise, 15,192 Indian and no foreign tourist visited Sambalpur while 18,567 Indian and zero foreign tourists visited Jharsuguda and Brajarajnagar.
Moreover, 13,233 Indian and no foreign tourist visited Rourkela while 38,318 Indian and zero foreign tourists reached Cuttack and Chowdwar. The data also says Jajpur Town witnessed footfall of 1,417 Indian and zero foreign tourists while in Jajpur Road it is 7,034 and six respectively. It also says 7,514 Indian and seven foreign tourists visited Paradip, the port town of Odisha.
Similarly, 16,213 Indian and six foreign tourists thronged Balasore while 7,185 Indian and zero foreign tourists visited Chandipur. Bhadrak saw 8,967 Indian and seven foreign tourists while 9,127 Indian and zero foreign tourists visited Angul.
Similarly, 842 Indian and zero foreign tourists visited Burla and Hirakud while 287 Indian tourists visited Chandikhole. Likewise, Malkangiri and Keonjhar saw 2,148 and 13,365 Indian tourists visiting the tourism destinations in the districts.
It is alleged that lack of proper campaign to attract the tourists to the state has also proved to be a double whammy.