Tag Archives: Vishal Kumar Dev

Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS, Principal Secretary, Dept. of Tourism, Sports & YS, Govt. of Odisha at a interactive meeting with HRAO members and government officials in Bhubaneswar said that new Tourism Policy in Odisha is ready to publish and will be declared after announcement of IPR. He also said that tourism has been given a priority sector by Chief Minister and as a result the tourism budget for the year 2021-22 has got doubled to Rs 1500 crore. “.  The Government is also working on various plans like development of hospitality infrastructure in the tourism sector to bring number of good category hotels to the State. He assured that next 2 / 3 years will be very exciting time for tourism to take to its greater height and will be the best tourist destination in the country,” he said.

The Odisha Tourism department is working towards releasing a new tourism policy for the state by 2020, informed, VishalKumar Dev, Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Tourist Department, Government of Odisha. He also said that the department is looking to aggressively promote water sports activities and recreational projects in the state as well as introducing houseboats at the popular tourist destinations like Chilika and Bhitarkanika. “The government is mulling out plans to revise the existing tourism policy, we will be ready with the new policy by next year. The government has been aggressively promoting water sports and recreational tourism in the state. We are laying focus on niche tourism segments such as houseboats tourism, which seamlessly mingles with ecotourism water recreation. We shall strive to synergize the various segments of water-based tourism as a sustainable segment. The state has embarked on a project to diversify its tourism offering by exploring the potential of its waterbodies, wetlands and coastline,” revealed Dev at the Odisha Tourism roadshow organised in Delhi. With the tourism sector contributing 13 per cent to Odisha’s GDP, the tourist inflow CAGR was recorded 9.1 percent during 2013 to 2017. The state government is expecting 2.4 crore tourist in 2020-21, up from 1.5 crore in 2018. Besides, the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) has also proposed the government to start cruise service in Chilika Lake in association with Forest and Environment and Tourism department.