Covid blows Odisha tourism

Bhubaneswar: Covid has resulted in an unprecedented decline on the arrival of tourists to Odisha.
While the arrival of foreigners fell more than 99% in 2020-21, in the case of domestic tourists, the decline was 84%, revealing the annual report of the State Department of Tourism.
The whole falls in the arrival of tourists (domestic and foreigners) reached 84.29% in the last fiscal compared to 2019-20.
According to the annual report, at all 652 tourists from abroad have visited the country in 2020-21 by opposing 1,00,00,567 previous financial years.
While 1,50,35,593 domestic tourists have visited Odisha in 2019-20, their footsteps of Nosur to only 23,76,523 in the last fiscal.
In total, only 23.77,175 tourists (both domestic and foreigners) have visited the country in 2020-21 compared to 1,51,36,160 in 2019-20, the report was stated.
The country’s tourism industry has witnessed a slide in Fortune since 2019, Cyclone Fani’s year hit Puri and Bhubaneswar.
The overall decline of tourists, including foreigners, fell 3.12% in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19.
“We will watch bad legs from tourists this year also remember the second wave of Covid.
Because tourism abroad has been seriously affected due to restrictions on international flight movements, we put the promotion of domestic tourism.
We launched a land trip and retreat events in different locations on In December last year to take advantage of the domestic market potential, “said a senior tourism official.
While the tourism industry slowly revived in November-December last year, the revival of Covid-19 infection in March-April this year discussed a fresh blow to this sector.
With the government reopen the coast, the temple and reducing more restrictions on this month, hospitality stakeholders hope to see the business back to its track.
“We have a bad effect after Cyclone Fani in 2019.
This pandemic plays Havoc in 2020.
We start living with new adequate safety steps and adoption to attract tourists.
The second wave of viruses destroys us.
Because many people have been vaccinated, We hope to be able to see the resurrection in our business, “said Debasis Kumar, representatives from the Association of Hotels and Restaurants Odisha (Hrao).