Odisha ministers, babus spent Rs 1 cr of taxpayers' money on foreign trips but foreign footfalls only declined

By-Manish Kumar

New Delhi: The state tourism department seems to be pouring out huge amounts of funds out of taxpayers’ money on “official trips” to foreign countries ostensibly to promote tourism in the state, even though hardly any positive results are seen in the number of foreigners visiting the state.

More than Rs 1 crore – Rs 1,07,62,478, to be precise – was spent by the tourism department in two foreign trips by its officials in 2015, said the department in response to an RTI application filed by Orissa POST seeking information on funds it spent on foreign trips.

The two trips were made by a group of around five officials of the department to Berlin and London last year. State tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda was also a part of the touring delegation.

According to the department, the high expenses were incurred on heads such as payment of participation fees at tourism fairs, airfare of the delegations, accommodation of officials and the minister in the foreign countries, construction of stands at the fairs, DA, insurance and a category simply referred to as “miscellaneous”.

Astonishingly, the department spent around `20 lakh alone at the World Travel Mart in London for construction of a stand. Expenses for the same at ITB in Berlin were `19 lakh, revealed the RTI reply. These stands contained photographs and other display material intended to highlight tourism destinations of Orissa.

But despite these expensive junkets, there has been no rise in the number of foreign tourists visiting Orissa. The inflow of foreign tourists to Konark has, in fact, kept declining in the last five years as reported by Orissa POST July 3. The state tourism minister also admitted in the state Assembly that the inflow of foreign tourists to the state has declined in 2015.

Experts in the tourism sector blamed this scenario on a distinct lack of vision of the state tourism department, saying the department has failed in using funds properly for promoting tourism in Orissa.

“The falling interest of foreigners in visiting Orissa is due to the state’s non-organised tourism sector, which prevents a large number of foreigners from visiting the state. Some states like Goa, Rajasthan and Kerala are flourishing because they have a better organised tourism sector. Foreigners prefer states that offer better and organised services,” said Himanshu Das, vice-president of All Orissa Travel and Tour Operators, to Orissa POST.

Many tour operators and private tourism sector players who take part in such foreign events at their own cost said the state government’s tourism department officials do not enthusiastically work for boosting tourism while in foreign countries.

“Most of them just sit in their stands waiting for people to come and interact with them. They do not on their own meet global tour operators and work for arrangements to ensure better tourist inflow from their countries. Public money is wasted if the government delegations do not do their jobs honestly and use such funds to merely visit foreign countries largely for shopping,” said a private tour operator who took part at the World Travel Trade in London.

An official from the state tourism department, however, said the funds were used to promote Orissa Tourism in foreign countries.

“The delegation met many foreigners there and showed them Orissa’s tourism-related strengths through multimedia, posters and direct interactions and meetings,” he added.

At a time when the department spends lavishly on foreign trips, there seems to be little effort to fill the posts of tourist officers lying vacant in the state, pointed out experts. Tourist officers act as the medium between the department and tourists wishing to travel to different parts of the state.