Bhubaneswar: Odisha Tourism is all set to introduce e-tourist visa facility at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA).
“The facility will be made available for foreign tourists visiting Odisha in view of the ensuing Men’s Hockey World Cup scheduled to be played at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from November 27. This will definitely increase foreign tourist inflow to the state,” said Tourism Secretary Vishal Dev on Thursday, while addressing a press conference held by the department for Odisha Travel Bazaar scheduled to kick start here from Friday.
Stating that the facility is now available at 25 airports for tourists coming from 165 other countries of the world, he said, “We have requested the Centre to expedite the process for making the e-visa facility available at the city airport ahead of the mega sporting event.”
The second edition of the three-day Odisha Travel Bazaar being organised by Odisha Tourism and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is scheduled to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Hotel Mayfair Convention here.
A total of 60 foreign tour operators from 23 countries like Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Netherlands, UK and USA will participate in the mega event.
This apart, 16 leading domestic tour operators from Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Varanasi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Raipur, Rajkot and Visakhapatnam will congregate to interact and engage themselves with 56 sellers comprising of travel agencies and hoteliers from Odisha to showcase and sell Odisha travel product internationally and within the country.
The invited tour operators took pre-event familiarization trips from October 2 to 4 to different tourist destinations of the state to experience the richness and vibrancy of the state. Three familiarization trips circuits-Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark-Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Bhitarkanika, Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri-Chilika-Gopalpur-Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar-Rayagada-Jeypore-Onkadeli-Bhubaneswar-were identified for the purpose.
