Odisha tourism planning to start water sports and houseboats to attract tourists

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to attract more tourists to the state Odisha tourism is planning to introduce houseboats, water-sports and recreation projects in popular tourist destinations. The state has embarked on a drive to diversify its tourism offerings by exploring the potential of the various waterbodies and wetlands that dot its landscape, besides its pristine 482 km long coastline, official sources said.
“The government has very aggressively promoted water Sports and recreation tourism in the recent times. We are laying special policy focus on niche Tourism segments such as Houseboat tourism, which seamlessly mingles with ecotourism and water recreation,” said tourism secretary Vishal Dev.
The tourism department has recently organised a familiarisation trip for owners and operators of different luxury houseboats, water-sports and recreation centres from across the country. Participation of 18 firms comprising 26 participants across six states including Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Telangana and West Bengal, apart from Odisha participated in the trip to Bhitarkanika’s mangrove swamps and Chilika Lake.
The visitors described Bhitarkanika as ‘Amazon of India’ while the survey of Chilika Lake region comprised visits to Rambha and Satapada sites, followed by Tampara Lake.
During the session, participants shared their detailed feedback, which indicated a general excitement and eagerness to start operations. “Tampara Lake, along its 7 km unhindered length, holds the potential to host international sporting events, such as banana boat races,” said one participant.
The participants also shared their ideas, suggestions and feedback on infrastructure development for ensuring the success of the niche segments, safety and security concerns, experience packaging, among others.
“Chilika Lake is the most beautiful wetland I have visited in my twenty five year career in water recreation and tourism”, revealed another.
The department of tourism is planning to incentivise investments in niche sectors such as water recreation, houseboat tourism and night camping through policy interventions. “Odisha has a habit of creating benchmarks and workable models for sustainable enterprise. In this case too, we shall jointly strive to synergise the various segments of water based tourism as a sustainable segment,” Dev added while addressing participants in the familiarisation trip.
Besides, Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) has also proposed the government to start cruise service in Chilika Lake in association with Forest and Environment and Tourism department.