Puri: The Holy City has witnessed a persistent rise in tourist inflow between 2014 and 2017, said sources in the Tourism department.
Many social activists and intellectuals are of the opinion that the state government’s initiatives to boost tourism in Odisha have produced the desired results.
According to sources, as many as 1, 08, 62, 048 tourists visited the state in 2014. Among them, altogether 37, 32, 491 visited to the Holy City. The number of domestic tourists to the city was 37, 05, 189 while the figure was 27, 302 for tourists from abroad in 2014.
Similarly, the state had witnessed a footfall of 1, 18, 53, 088 tourists in 2015. As many as 41, 43, 394 tourists visited the Holy City in that year.
According to the Tourism department data, the state had hosted 1, 29, 19, 260 visitors in 2016 while 43, 08, 842 among them had visited Puri.
Similarly, altogether 1, 41, 11, 243 tourists had visited the state in 2017 of which 47, 22, 159 visited Puri.
As per the data, 27, 302 tourists from abroad had visited the Pilgrim City in 2014 while the figure came down to 25, 735 in 2015. The city witnessed an upward trend in the footfall of tourists from abroad in 2016 with the arrival of 29, 209 visitors.
However, the city had hosted as many as 38, 009 tourists from abroad in 2017, sources said.
“The state government has organised several road shows abroad to attract tourists. Besides, flight operations from Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar to some foreign countries have started in recent years. All these initiatives have produced some results,” said a city-based intellectual.
Tourism department assistant director Bijay Kumar Jana said they would introduce more initiatives to boost tourism sector in the city.
PNN