Category Archives: States

Along with developing world-class infrastructure and organising several national events, the Madhya Pradesh government has now decided to promote sports tourism in a big way across the state. Sports Minister of MP, Jeetu Patwari has announced that the state government is drafting a policy in this regard. “Sports tourism is a fast-growing sector and has been giving a fillip to the global travel industry for a while. I think the time has come to start promoting sports tourism; the policy will be soon prepared on this,” said Patwari while giving information on the 20-point departmental action plan for the year 2020. Patwari said that sports infrastructure will be set up in Bhopal Gwalior, Jabalpur and Ujjain through PPP model. In last one year, MP has organised several national and international sports meet. In 2020, the state will host events like world dragon boat championship in Indore, where teams from 43 countries will participate. Bhopal will host the rowing championship around October-November 2020.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism has announced ‘Namaste Orchha’ festival, which is scheduled to be held from 6-8 March 2020, in the historic town of Orchha. The festival, aimed at celebrating the cultural landscape of MP, was announced at a curtain raiser event in New Delhi, in the presence of Sonia Meena, Additional Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) and Yasmin Kidwai, Festival Director and Curator, Director of Spring Box Films. The 3-day festival offers unparalleled travel experiences for visitors to Madhya Pradesh, the government has announced this festival in the heritage city of Orchha to promote tourism, celebrate cultural diversity, natural beauty and the architectural heritage of the state. Namaste Orchha will showcase Madhya Pradesh in Orchha, bringing it alive with music, dance, heritage tours, workshops, local cuisine, arts and handicrafts. Madhya Pradesh boasts popular tourist destinations like Khajuraho, Ujjain, Sanchi, Bhimbetka as well as untapped places like the recently awarded National Award for Best Heritage City – Orchha.

After overcoming a major civic and tourism infrastructure challenge post Cyclone Fani, Odisha Tourism is looking to prepare a blueprint for developing its most-visited tourist destinations with a focus on creating a land bank for hotel projects. Vishal K Dev, IAS, Secretary, Odisha Tourism, said, “One of the challenges that Odisha Tourism faced was creating a land bank for developing premium tourism and hospitality infrastructure. We are looking to consolidate an investment-ready land bank of over 2,000 acres for the sector in the coming years.” He added that this plots of land will be identified near all major touristic sites. Land banks will be created in areas close to Chilika, Bhitarkanika, Similipal, Hirakud, Satkosia and sea coastline. Dev added that the tourism board had already developed and launched its Marine Drive Eco Retreat at the Ramachandi Beach near the grand Konark Sun Temple. “It has been developed as an environmentally sustainable model incorporating best practices in material utilisation, zero liquid and sewerage discharge and holistic waste management. It has been envisioned as eastern India’s first glamping set up. Scheduled from 14 December 2019 to 31 January 2020, the Eco Retreat is a unique experience of glamping in 50 luxury cottages along with adventure and water sports activities. We plan to replicate the Eco Retreat model at suitable times of the year on prominent beach stretches along our 482 km coastline, each having its own unique experience,” Dev added.

Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) has launched a destination wedding package, in a bid to promote tourism in the region. The above package will be available at six Panthanivas (a chain of hotels operated by OTDC) in Rambha, Gopalpur, Chandipur, Puri, Konark, and Barkul. Development work on these places would be started during the first phase. Shreemayee Mishra, Chairperson, OTDC, has reportedly said that apart from the wedding package, the newly-wed pair would also get a complimentary honeymoon as well as packages for their first two marriage anniversaries. She further said that since people are interested in destination weddings, it is expected that this new initiative is likely to become a trendsetter. The wedding package would cost around INR 2.17 lakh, which will cover the cost for two days and would include 25 rooms, the main wedding meal, three principal meals for 50 persons, basket snacks, cocktail snacks, mineral water in the rooms, and the wedding drum. The price may increase in case people require more facilities. The package can be booked online and it could further be extended to other Panthanivas of the state.

The existing supply in Delhi is expected to experience an increase of approximately 768 keys over the next 1-2 years, reveals JLL’s report titled Delhi NTR-Charting Delhi’s Tourism Potential. Delhi currently has a total room inventory of 16,912 rooms, spread across more than 80 branded hotels. Although the growth of new supply is moderate with Delhi’s position as a mature and established hospitality market, there are ten hotels in various stages of development, which are expected to add more than 1,800 keys over the next 3-4 years. The bulk of the upcoming supply coming from the Upscale segment and luxury segment.

After facing severe setbacks caused by Cyclone Fani in 2019, Odisha Tourism is recovering slowly and has set a milestone target for itself for 2022.  On this, Vishal K Dev, Secretary, Odisha Tourism said, “Through our efforts, we are targeting to receive foreign tourist arrivals of about 500,000, out of a total of 2.5 crore tourist arrivals, by 2022. Our top 10 source markets for FTAs are USA, UK, Japan, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia and the CIS, with the top four markets contributing over 30 per cent of total FTA. We are additionally very keen on promoting Odisha in the Middle East and Southeast Asia now. Sports tourism and sporting events, as well as eco-tourism, are a few segments that have been witnessing the most promising responses from these markets.”

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) is tapping the potential it has for adventure tourism and is working with a private agency to develop camping sites in the state. It has built 30 new camping sites across the state that also offer adventure activities such as jungle safari, hiking, nature trails, trekking, stargazing, bird-watching, camping, canoeing, etc. These campsites have been developed in different regions of Madhya Pradesh such as Sole Adventure Park in Punjapura and Mandav, and Omkareshwar from Indore region. MPTB is also providing training to the local vendors. Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, IAS, Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, and Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board and Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation, said “Madhya Pradesh Tourism is working vigorously to build adventure tourism in the state, many of the policies like water tourism policy, camping policy, capital subsidy for adventure infrastructure development, has been formulated in the state for the attraction of adventure investors and operators. Currently we have set up 30 adventure campsites in Madhya Pradesh and are getting great responses from the tourists so we had planned to set-up around 100 campsites all around the state.”

Telangana Tourism has opened an air-conditioned two-storey ferry, and ten three-star cottages in Somalisa, Kollapur, which is located at the backwaters of Krishna River. Located about 250km away from Hyderabad, these new facilities were inaugurated by Srinivas Goud, Minister of State, Tourism & Culture, Telangana. Previously a Naxal zone, Somasila, is now being transformed into a world-class eco-tourism destination.

Around 32,000 domestic tourists visited Jammu & Kashmir between August and November, marking a decline of 87% from the 2.49 lakh domestic tourists visiting the Union Territory in the corresponding month last year. With regards to foreign tourists, the dip is 82%. Zahoor Qari, Chairman—TAAI, J&K Chapter, said, “Ever since Article 370 was revoked in J&K, we have not seen any development in tourism in the region. There has been a steep decline in tourists as compared to last year, with only 10% of tourists received as compared to last year. In winter last year, we saw a lot of tourists who came to Gulmarg, Srinagar etc., but owing to the restrictions by the Government, tourists are now hesitant to visit Kashmir right now.” The ban on leisure travel to the valley was officially lifted on October 10.

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board has released a list of land parcels, for which it has invited bids for development into tourist sites and hotels through PPP mode. The queries were opened for a total of seven land parcels and properties, which include Benazir Palace in Bhopal to be made into a heritage hotel; Sawant Nagar in Tikamgarh, where there is a plan to create tourism zone with minimum 5 tourism projects inclusive of 100 rooms 4-5 Star hotel or 50 rooms luxury resort; Madhavgarh Fort to be converted into a heritage property; Mehgavan, which is to be developed into hotel cum convention centre or 4-5 star hotel; Patakhali (Nagarbeda) in Khandwa, where there are plans to develop resort/ wellness centre/amusement park/theme park/adventure sports/film studio and infrastructure for film making; Juna Kathhivada in Alirajpur, where a resort/wellness centre is to be developed; and Khapa in Betul, where plans are to develop resort/wellness centre/camping sites and fixed tenting units.