Bhubaneswar: The World Tourism Day 2020 was celebrated by Department of Tourism on 27th Sep 2020 at Bhubaneswar. On this occasion a super bike rally consisting of 80 superbikes from 9 superbiker groups was flagged off at 7:30AM from Info-city Square by Minister Tourism and OLLC. The rally covered 25 KM to culminate at Dhauli Shanti Stupa.
At Dhauli, a concluding ceremony was organized. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gave his message on the occasion. He announced opening of Tourism in the State and welcomed all to visit Odisha, as all kind of precautionary measures have been taken for safety & security of visitors. In his message he highlighted about the 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”. Hon’ble Chief Minister also emphasized through his message on revival initiatives of the Government for Tourism in the State.
“Odisha by Road” campaign was launched on this occasion through Kalinga Rides – Superbike Rally. This campaign aims to encourage tourists from within the state as well as from the neighboring states to travel to various tourist destinations in the State of Odisha through the excellent network of quality roads. Visits to the eco-tour nature camps, OTDC properties, etc 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. Social media posts of their road trips by such tourist is also expected to boost the positive image of Odisha. OTDC has recently 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.
On this occasion a campaign for promotion and popularization of Odia cuisine was announced through a chain of authentic Odia cuisine Restaurants named “Nimantran” by OTDC. Odia cuisine as an aspect of Odia culture has so far been largely unexplored and the need for promotion of a variety of odia cuisine is being attended to by this initiative. This chain of restaurants will be managed by OTDC through a dedicated wing and a variety of menu of authentic odia cuisine drawn from various districts of Odisha will be catered in these restaurants. In the initial phase restaurants at Bhubaneswar, Puri and Sambalpur will be launched, and three Food-on-Wheel mobile vans will be deployed in Bhubaneswar and Puri under this initiative.
Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi, Minister Tourism & OLL spoke about the recent initiatives of the Department and the strategy to promote different tourist destinations by preparing Master Plans. He stressed the importance of tourist safety while focusing on revival of the tourism sector in post-pandemic times. The minister said that the promotion of Odia Cuisine is much warranted since this aspect of Odia culture has so far been largely unexplored. He hoped to build informal brand ambassadors of Odisha Tourism through the “Odisha By Road” campaign.
Winners for photography contest organized on this occasion were also announced.
The occasion was also attended by Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS Commissioner cum Secretary, Srimayee Mishra, Chairperson, OTDC, Sachin R Jadhav, IAS, Director Tourism and other officials and dignitaries.