She talked about the new initiatives being planned in Odisha. For instance, several thematic tourist circuits have been planned and are under development. These include the Buddhist Circuit, Ekamra Corridor (a spiritual corridor), Puri-Konark Heritage Corridor, and others. There are plans to develop adventure tourism in Deomali, a high hill range in the Koraput region. Simlipal, Hirakud riverfront, and the Bhitrakanika wetlands are being developed for ecotourism.

Odisha’s crystal coastline along the Bay of Bengal is another tourist highlight. The Government of Odisha plans to invite big hoteliers to develop projects in Puri and Konark. An international airport is also proposed in Puri.

Talking about the adventure tourism offerings of Odisha, Parida highlighted activities like trekking, scuba diving as well as water sports facilities at locations like the Silver City Boat Club in Cuttack. The state’s adventure tourism policy of 2022 is yet to be implemented, and Parida said she “hopes to action it soon”. The Adventure Tourism Meet in Shillong was very instructive in this regard.

Parida thanked the Indian Express Group for organising the meet. She said she found it useful to share views with the other ministers and experts present. Parida found the interaction between the states very instructive. She took back many learnings from the Meet and also invited all the experts to Odisha.

Parida also visited the caves of Cherrapunji and observed adventure tourism in action in Meghalaya. Cherrapunji, cloudy and beautiful, was a mesmerising experience for her. Apart from the caves, she also visited a couple of homestays in Cherrapunji and interacted with the owners and learnt what they were doing to promote their homestays. This would help them to develop homestays in Odisha, she emphasised.

Recently, Maniabandha in Odisha won the ‘Best Tourism Village’ award from the Government of India. Acknowledging this achievement, Parida talked about the village’s amazing textile tradition and how each home there was like a cottage industry.

As for adventure tourism in Odisha, Parida said it would help them attract younger visitors to the state and help increase tourist footfall. Even the popular Eco Retreats of Odisha are being more made more affordable, so many more people can visit and experience them. Odisha is also looking at developing some new offbeat tourist destinations, she said.

With Odisha having so much to offer tourists, Parida was hopeful that the addition of adventure tourism would boost the local economy in each tourist destination and generate substantial employment.