Hockey World Cup: Odisha plans co-branding of tourism, sports

Photo: @TheHockeyIndia

Odisha aims to dovetail tourism promotion campaign with its sports publicity in the run-up to the Hockey World Cup to be hosted by the state in November-December 2018.

The state government which is projecting Bhubaneswar as the country’s sports capital is looking at cross-promotional tourism activities to run in tandem with the sports campaigns. The idea is to showcase the city as a tourism centre of choice by leveraging the significant footfalls anticipated for the hockey spectacle. The Hockey World Cup is scheduled between November 28 and December 16 this year.

“Odisha is looking forward to Hockey World Cup 2018 being the chariot to promote Odisha as a destination of choice for travellers across the globe. An opening ceremony will take place for the Hockey World Cup. The idea is to promote not only sports but also Odisha as a tourist destination to the international and as well as a national audience. In terms of expected visitors to Odisha, we are very optimistic of high footfalls and we are exploring all possible opportunities to promote Odisha. The department of sports would be carrying out orientation programmes with the hotel association to provide the best possible services to the visiting teams, their families and tourists”, the department of sports & youth affairs, Odisha stated in an email response to Business Standard.

The state tourism department is readying tourism packages for the visiting hockey players, accompanying officials and inbound visitors. A branding initiative is planned at all the major airports in the country along with a teaser video launch at the Women Hockey World Cup in London 2018. In addition, sports exchange programmes are being planned with New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This initiative will take off with a hockey-friendly series with NSW.

The state government is encouraging hoteliers to upgrade their properties into star categories. “There are many hotels in Puri which are of decent standard and can be promoted to star category by doing minor modification”, said Nitin Bhanudas Jawale, director of the state tourism department.

As many as 103 hotels have been identified which can be elevated to star category standard and they are being sensitized to go for the categorization.

“If 10 to 15 can be promoted to star categories, it will also be an achievement”, said the director. Odisha has 11 star rated hotel properties.

The tourism department is expecting a footfall of around 40000 during the Hockey World Cup. For accommodating the foreign guests, the state government is reaching out to engineering colleges, public sector undertakings and corporates for sparing their guest houses

For the Hockey World Cup, an international team slogan campaign is to be launched for each of the 16 participating nations. Prime Ministers of all the 16 countries would be invited to be a part of the Hockey World Cup 2018 campaign.

The Hockey World Cup is slated to be promoted at international conferences and events, including all government level international delegations. The embassies of all the participating nations are proposed to be engaged for the sporting event. Also, a student exchange programme is mooted between the schools of the hockey playing nations.

The infrastructure at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar is being spruced up for the ensuing Hockey World Cup. Seating capacity at the stadium has been ramped up from 9000 to 16000. The existing pink and blue hockey turfs on the main and practice pitches would be replaced by new turfs sourced from Germany. Construction of two additional galleries at the north and south ends as well as the building of two more floors at the west end, is expected to be completed by June. Existing floodlights at the stadium will be upgraded. The sports department has also completed the reconstruction of the swimming pools. Exclusive arrangements are being made for the specially abled people so that they can travel to the stadium without hassles.

Bhubaneswar, an emerging hub for sports, has played host to a string of major international sports events like FIH Champions Trophy 2014, Indo-Japan Test Series 2015, 22 and Asian Athletics Championships 2017, Hockey World League Finals 2017 and Hero Super Cup 2018. The city is host to Kalinga Lancers team under Hocket India League since inception. The Odisha government is also sponsoring the national Men's and Women's hockey squads, in the senior and junior categories.

The state government has announced plans to develop a multi-disciplinary Kalinga International Sports City over 100 acres of land on Bhubaneswar's outskirts. Sports complexes are also planned in Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, Jeypore and Sambalpur.