With the peak tourism season in Orissa beckoning the tourists from the country as well as overseas, the star hotels in the city have made all out efforts to woo the inbound tourists.
The leisure tourism segment in the state is expected to grow 15 per cent in the peak tourism season of the current fiscal and to meet this growing demand, the star hotels are adding more rooms and also new facilities to their existing properties.
"We are adding 58 rooms to our existing property- Swosti Hotel in the city at a cost of Rs five crore and this will be completed by the end of November this year. The inbound tourist arrivals in Orissa is set to grow by 15 per cent during this year's peak tourism season and to meet this growing demand, we are adding these 58 rooms. This year's peak tourism season has also begun on a positive note for us and we have confirmed bookings of up to 45 per cent for three properties- Swosti and Swosti Premium, both in Bhubaneswar and the Swosti Palm Resort in Gopalpur”, said J K Mohanty, managing director of Swosti Group and chairman, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Orissa (HRAO).
Similarly, The Presidency, another star hotel in the city is also going to add 50 rooms soon to meet the increasing influx of leisure as well as corporate tourists.
"We are soon going to add 50 more rooms to our existing property in Bhubaneswar as there will be a growth of up to 15 per cent in leisure tourist arrivals and around 10 per cent growth in the corporate travel segment”, said a top official of the Presidency Hotel.
Hoteliers are also upbeat on the occupancy levels of rooms during this peak tourist season and have pegged occupancy levels at around 80 per cent in Bhubaneswar and Puri.
"Occupancy levels of the star hotels in Bhubaneswar and Puri will hover around 80 per cent in this peak tourism season. Tourist inflow is set to rise in the eco-tourism segment while tribal tourism segment is set to witness a slump due to the rise in Maoist insurgency and also the negative publicity surrounding the outbreak of chronic cholera in tribal dominated Rayagada district”, the official stated.
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Sandeep Sharma, general manager, Hotel Hindusthan International said, “There is going to be at least 10 per cent growth in the leisure tourism segment in the state during this year's peak tourism season. Bhubaneswar has also emerged as an ideal destination in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Expositions) segment. The occupancy levels in the hotels of Bhubaneswar and Puri will remain at 75-80 per cent.”
The different category star hotels in the state maintain an average occupancy level of 60-65 per cent throughout the year and the occupancy levels rise to around 80-85 per cent during the peak tourism season.