Post News Network
Baripada, Nov 15: Tourism is a vital sector for tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district. While footfall of domestic tourists to various tourism spots is on the rise over the last four years, the district has not received the expected inflow of tourists from abroad. Instead, the number of foreign arrivals is on the decline, if statistics of the last four years are taken into consideration.
However, stakeholders lament that the department is doing nothing to facilitate the inflow of tourists from abroad and is not exploring ways and means to attract them.
Locals say the district has been unable to tap into its immense potential for tribal and rural tourism. Sources in the department said there has been no discernible development of about 16 major tourist spots that are situated in the district.
As a result, the number of foreign tourists visiting the district is noticeably on the decline.
While 231 foreign tourists visited the district in 2011, their number plunged to 66 in 2012. The number picked up in 2013 with 151 foreign visitors but again dropped to 89 in 2014.
However, domestic footfall has been comparatively strong. Sources said 12,564 tourists visited from various parts of the country in 2011 while the number rose to 18,878 in 2012. It further shot up to 23,448 in 2013 and 26,270 in 2014.
More tourists are expected in the current year. Similipal is the major tourist attraction in the district; 89 foreign tourists visited the national park in 2011, but merely six foreigners came visiting in 2012. The number rose to 37 in 2013 and came down to 25 in 2014.
District tourism officer Manoranjan Mohapatra blamed Maoist activities as the major factor for the decline in
foreign arrivals.
However, locals and tourism experts refuse to buy this argument. For the last few years, Maoist activities in Mayurbhanj have gone down by a large extent. Despite this, tourists are not coming to Similipal and other places and the department seems to be unwilling to look into the reasons for this and explore ways to woo more foreign tourists, the experts observed.
Two Italian tourists were kidnapped by Maoists in March, 2012 in southern Orissa while they were visiting tribal pockets. The incident drew a lot of international attention then, possibly taking a toll on foreign arrivals, said tourism department officials.
Besides, after the incident, the state had imposed restrictions on the visits of foreign tourists in Maoist-hit areas. Earlier in March 2009, Maoists had set ablaze three forest rest houses.