By Sagar
Post News Network/Special Report
KONARK: The stark decline of Orissa on the tourism front over the years is reflected, among other aspects, in the fall in tourist arrivals at the just-concluded Konark Festival – one among the main showpieces for global tourism in this state. Just over 200 foreign tourists turned up at the five-day festival this time; and, worse, half of these were foreign performers at various shows, and cannot be called tourists.
Those who come to sell their wares, like art and craft products, were largely upset at this poor turnout of foreigners in recent years. As is the case elsewhere too, their items fetch good price from foreign buyers, but there are only marginal gains from domestic tourists.
Curiously, state tourism officials are a happy and content lot. They cite figures to show the tourism scenario in the state is “improving” over the years; and shift the blame on private sector that is “not measuring up.”
Figures cited by officials in support of their stand speak for themselves. In the last 10 years, the rise in the number of foreign tourists in the state as a whole has been from 28,817 in 2004 to 66,675 in 2013, which they claim as “good”. The hollowness of the claim gets exposed when the figures are compared with the national figures. Over 7 million foreign tourists visit India a year. Orissa has not been able to draw even one per cent of this tourism flow, despite the fact it is rich in tourism attractions.
As for Konark, the annual five-day festival came to an end December 5. In the last four years, the state-sponsored festival has largely lost its charm among foreigners. “Less than 49 foreign visitors were present at the festival on any given day in the last two years,” a tourism official said, adding that half of them were part of the dance troupes. Hardly 15 foreign visitors came in and ‘witnessed’ the dance festival.
This year, altogether, the Konark Festival had 210 foreign tourists at the five-day programme, preceded by 138 in 2013, 213 in 2012, 422 in 2011 and 389 in 2010. The gradual decline in the number foreign tourists from 389 to 210 in the last four years is, according to the tourism department, “due to the factors such as reluctance of private investors to put their money in hospitality sector and building infrastructure at Konark.”
In fact, the festival is celebrated to pull more tourists to the 13th Century Sun temple, a world heritage site recognized by Unesco, but the very structure itself is slipping down the list of foreign tourists’ attractions. In the last three years, foreign tourist arrivals have declined from 8,762 in 2011 to 8,076 in 2012, and further to 7,486 in 2013, as per the Orissa Tourism Department. This is based on the number of tickets sold by the Archaeological Survey of India.
“Even though foreign tourist arrivals are declining, I think we can still make money out of domestic tourists who visit the state in large numbers,” said the RK Patnaik, assistant tourist officer. A total of 23,34,556 domestic tourists visited the Sun Temple in 2013; 23,06,658 in 2012 and 19,19,625 in 2011.
Yet, the turnout of domestic visitors to the Konark festival has gone down in the last three years. While this year 13,704 people witnessed the dance festival, 24,103 people had turned up in 2013 and 30,386 in 2012. The tourist officer, however, admitted that the state has failed to explore the tourism potential of the 13 Century masterpiece and also its long coastline.
Across the country, tourism departments are known to take better care of themselves with the facilities meant for tourists and take little in tourism promotion.
Problems in Konak are many. “The last bus from Konark to Bhubaneswar leaves at 5pm. So, those who land up in Bhubaneswar and come here would rush back unless they came in their own vehicles. The buses are not comfortable, too,” said Sweta Agrawal, a tourist from Bihar. Konark does not have much to engage tourist interest for more than a few hours as of now, and hence people stay in Puri or Bhubaneswar and make a trip to Konark.
About the eateries at the approach to the tourism site, the less said the better. It is in such aspects that the tourism department’s lack of interest to change the scenario for the better is most evident.
