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New Delhi, July 30: Despite its long coastline, many places of religious and historic significance, unique art and culture, tribal life and numerous popular tourist destinations, Orissa has failed to figure in the list of 74 tourism related awards conferred by the Centre Saturday.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan conferred the awards, christened as ‘National Tourism Awards for 2014-15’, at a function organised by ministry of tourism in New Delhi. The awards were presented on various segments of travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Minister of state (Independent Charge) for tourism and culture Mahesh Sharma presided over the function.
The awards were presented in many categories like best state/union territory for comprehensive development of tourism, best maintained and disabled-friendly monument, best heritage city, best tourist-friendly railway station, best airport, best rural tourism project, best hotels, Incredible India Bed & Breakfast Establishments among others. But unfortunately the state of Orissa failed to figure in any of these categories.
Kerala was at the centre stage as it bagged a number of awards for responsibly promoting tourism in the state while Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were chosen as the best states which did comprehensive development of tourism in the state.
Mahajan in her speech said, “During our childhood, we had read about Gulliver Travels and Vasco De Gama to have a fair knowledge about new places of tourism. However, it has now become easier to do so with the spread of tourism industry.”
She also expressed her happiness about rural tourism being accorded importance in the award ceremony and cited the example of rich rural tourism in Konkan region.
Sharma said, “A slew of measures taken by the Centre like – Swadesh Darshan, PRASAD, toll-free helpline number in 12 foreign languages, Medical Tourism Promotion Board, Ramayan Circuit,
Krishna Circuit, Buddha Circuit and Swachchh App have contributed to the growth of tourism industry.”
