Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government today launched a few initiatives on the occasion of World Tourism Day to revive tourism sector amid COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced reopening of the State Tourism on the occasion of World Tourism Day and launched two more campaigns to boost the sector and promote delicious Odia cuisine. Announcing opening of tourism, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched two more campaigns to boost tourism in the State and promote Odia cuisine. He welcomed all to visit Odisha during the pandemic as all kind of precautionary measures have been taken for safety and security of visitors. In his message, he highlighted about award winning initiative of ecotourism nature camps run successfully for five years by the communities and which is in line with this year’s World Tourism Day theme of ‘Rural Tourism’. He also emphasized on revival initiatives of the Government for tourism in the State.
On the special occasion, he launched ‘Odisha by Road’ campaign through Kalinga Rides – superbike rally – inviting the visitors from neighbouring states as well as within the State to explore Odisha by road.
The campaign aims to encourage tourists to travel to various tourist destinations in the State through the excellent network of quality roads. Visits to the eco-tour nature camps, OTDC properties and spending nights at such destinations is expected to give boost to the tourism sector in the hinterlands of the State and revive the economy. Also, the Social media posts of their road trips by such tourists are also expected to boost the positive image of Odisha. Recently, OTDC has announced a day picnic package named “Bana Bhoji” that is expected to boost tourism among the Odia tourists by arranging visits to nearby nature camps. In a message, CM Patnaik also announced a campaign for promotion and popularization of Odia cuisine through a chain of authentic Odia cuisine restaurants named “Nimantran” by OTDC. “OTDC will start a chain of restaurants by the name of ‘Nimantran’ – focused on promoting and popularising Odia cuisine. These will provide different flavours of Odia food which are linked with our culture, heritage and lifestyle,” Patnaik said. On the occasion of World Tourism Day, which was celebrated today in Bhubaneswar, Tourism Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi flagged off a superbike rally consisting of 80 superbikes from 9 superbiker groups at 7.30 am from Infocity Square. The rally covered 25 km to culminate at Shanti Stupa atop Dhauli hill. He announced that tourist destinations will reopen from October 1 this year.