Breaking New Ground

Orissa may be out of the mainstream of national politics, but it has gained in one respect from the United Front government at the Centre. Even as the industry waits for a national tourism policy, local boy and Union tourism minister Srikanta Jena has drawn up a Rs 348-crore plan for the state.

This is not as unwarranted as it sounds. Orissa has an embarrassment of beaches, forests, mountains lakes and culture that should have made it one of Indias major tourism destinations. Instead, tourist traffic has almost stagnated in the past few years (see chart).

Officials say this slide was because of the Gulf War and disruptions in airline services to Bhubaneswar. The point is that the first of these reasons holds true for other destinations as well, yet tourist inflows elsewhere have actually increased because of the unrest in Jammu & Kashmir.

 

The real reason for Orissas dismal performance lies elsewhere. The downturn in foreign tourist arrivals is mainly because of our lack of infrastructure and the inability to market the state, says J K Mohanty, chairman of the Hotel and Restaurants Association of Orissa (HRAO).

Jogendra Patra, director, state tourism department, echoes Mohantys admission when he says primary facilities like roads, communications, transport, telecommunications and medical facilities at tourist spots are sub-standard.

Both the state and central government have realised this and the new policy aims at increasing foreign tourist inflows to one lakh and domestic tourist traffic to 30 lakh in a decade.

The calculation is if the average spending by foreign and domestic tourists is taken at Rs 3,000 and Rs 200 a day, a three- and four-day stay by them respectively would generate income of over Rs 300 crore of which the state could earn 32 per cent as tax.

This level of tourist inflows would also increase employment in this sector from 35,000 currently to 70,000.

Jenas mega-venture plans to focus on the development of the Hukitola-Gupti-Udaygiri-Nandankanan regions, a potent mix of nature, heritage and wildlife tourist destinations.

The project report, which has been submitted to the Japanese Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund for financial assistance, expects the addition of these spots to the conventional tour itinerary of Konark-Puri-Chilka to raise total tourist arrivals to five million. It has projected annual revenue earnings due to this increased inflow at Rs 600 crore and employment opportunities at 60,000.

The blueprint highlights a golf course at Dhauli and a Rs 50-lakh water sports complex at Hukitola and an island off Paradeep. Also prominent on the agenda are the Buddhist sites at Udaygiri, Ratnagiri and Lalitgiri in which the state plans to invest roughly Rs 18 crore in museums and art galleries, tourist facilities, landscaping, excavation and preservation, electric sub-stations and village resettlements.

The plan also intends to provide hovercraft services at Chandipur and give a facelift to Satpada, where dolphins were recently sighted, by turning it into the Dal Lake of Orissa with houseboats and skiing facilities.

It has been estimated that tourist traffic to the newly developed regions in Orissa could rise by 10 per cent during 1998-2000 and by 15 per cent in the next two years and accelerate to 20 per cent thereafter.

Meanwhile, the international consultancy firm, Coopers & Lybrand, which conducted a study on investment opportunities in Orissa, has identified hoteliering, communication and travel services (luxury cruises, trains, hovercraft and cable cars) as profitable investment outlets.

According to the study, Bhubaneswar is rapidly emerging as a popular business and convention centre so there is ample opportunity to build 1500-2000 capacity auditoriums and business centres.

All of this, however, can only take off if the government builds infrastructure. The Centres national action plan has expressed a commitment to upgrade airports, airlines, railway stations, post and telegraph and banking on the tourist routes.

The state government is thinking of involving private entrepreneurs in augmenting secondary facilities like accommodation and information systems. For this the state is considering incentives like subsidies on capital investment and tax holidays in its forthcoming tourism policy.

The effects of this official attention has started showing results. Though the state has been bypassed by the new foreign hospitality groups who have offered to invest Rs 21 billion in hotels and tourism projects in the country, Indian Hotels, ITC and Hyatt Regency have already sought land allotments for various projects in the state.