The growth in foreign tourist arrivals in Orissa has been unimpressive in the past ten years compared to the national average.
While, the international tourist arrivals in the country went up from 23.58 lakh in 1999 to 53.66 lakh (127 per cent) in 2008, Orissa continued to be a laggard with its foreign tourist inflow rising from 33,101 to 43,966 (32 per cent) in the same period.
The figures are as per the Economic Survey for 2009-10 compiled by the Planning and Coordination department of the state government.
It may be noted that Orissa accounts for less than one per cent of the overall international tourist inflow to the country. The lack of the necessary infrastructure for the high-end tourists is believed to be a significant cause for the flat growth in foreign tourist arrivals in the state.
While the number of tourist in the state in the said period has grown at an annual rate of 10 per cent, the hotel rooms have increase at the rate of six per cent per annum. By the end of 2008, there were 24,197 hotel rooms in all categories with a total of46,809 beds.
Going by the tourist composition of the state, the tourist arrivals from abroad as well as from other states within the country has witnessed a near flat growth over the past ten years. Orissa's domestic traffic posted a rather lacklustre growth from 13.24 lakh in 1999 to 25.11 lakh in 2008.
However, the interesting facet of the state's tourism sector is the noticeable growth in the number of tourists within the state. This segment has posted an impressive growth from 13.67 lakh in 1999 to 38.46 lakh in 2008.
Within the country, most tourists to Orissa come from West Bengal followed by Andhra Pradesh.
As per the tourist profile survey of 2004-05, the average duration and spending of a domestic tourist is 3.9 days and Rs 1275 respectively. On the Other hand, a foreign tourist to Orissa, on an average, spends 12.7 days and Rs 1944 per day.
The survey says that the state's total earnings in the tourism sector, including domestic and international, has gone up from Rs 2225.90 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 3327.96 crore in 2008-09.
