Odisha Tourism to promote Diamond Triangle and Golden Triangle circuits

With a gamut of tourism products like beaches, temples, festivals, wildlife, waterfalls, handicraft, Odisha Tourism is looking at promoting the Diamond Triangle and Golden Triangle circuits in the international and domestic markets. According to M R Patnaik, Director Tourism, Govt. of Odisha and Managing Director, Odisha Tourism Development Corporation Ltd. (OTDC), the state has witnessed ten per cent year-on-year growth in the number of domestic and international tourists and expects the same in 2014. Patnaik said, “Over the last five years the tourism corporation has aggressively promoted the state as destination in the domestic as well as international market. In 2013, the state received 98 lakh domestic tourists and 76,000 international tourists.”

Elaborating further Patnaik said, “The state has 200 Buddhist sites and we will promote Buddhist destinations: Ratnagiri, Udayagiri and Lalitgiri that forms the Diamond Triangle of Odisha. In addition, we will promote the Golden Triangle Circuit: Puri, Konark and Bhuvaneshwar to further augment tourism in the state.”

Talking about the tourist infrastructure in the state, Patnaik said, “In FY 2014 the tourism outlay of the state was Rs 66 crore and for FY 2015, we will propose seven-eight fold increase in the budget. Odisha has 336 tourist destinations. We are looking at developing infrastructure at strategic locations. For instance, additional infrastructure (accommodation, approach road to tourist destination, highways) in Puri, Konark, Gopalpur, Chandipur, Talsari etc.”

Informing about the plans to work the travel trade, Patnaik said, “We will work closely with hoteliers, associations and tour operators. We will participate in domestic and international tradeshows, organise roadshows in metros and other cities including Ahmedabad, Pune, Chennai, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Raipur, Hyderabad to promote these destinations. We will promote Buddhist Circuit during the roadshows in South-East Asian countries including Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka.”

“We will also promote Nava Kalebara festival that is held once in every 12-19 years according to the calculation of the year and date. It is an ancient ritual associated with most of the Jagannath Temples when the idols of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan are replaced by a new set of idols. The last festival was held in 1996 and the next will be held in 2015,” Patnaik informed.

Odisha Tourism to promote Diamond Triangle and Golden Triangle circuits