October 20, 2015 TnH Global

Chhattisgarh Tourism kicks off unique, niche tourism products

In its latest initiative, Chhattisgarh Tourism Board has introduced one-of-a-kind tourism products and is looking ahead to promote the state as one of the most popular Buddhist hotspots across the globe.

The land of Chhattisgarh with its profound heritage, ethnic tribes and vast forest cover provides tremendous scope for a plethora of adventure activities. Keeping in mind that coming-of-age tourists are inclined to gain rich experiences and are more interested in niche destinations and products, Chhattisgarh Tourism Board has rolled out some interesting projects that are rarely found in Central India.

Santosh Mishra, Special Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Government of Chhattisgarh explained, “Quite recently, we have come up with two novel products- Sirpur Heritage Walk and Walking with the tribe. The tourism board has entered into an agreement with New Delhi-based India City Walks to roll out the niche products. We are offering a boost to water sports in a major way and we are thinking of popularizing cycle tours, hill biking, camping sites and caravan tourism. We are trying to tap the South- East Asian tourist market since we intend to make the state as one of the most preferred Buddhist destinations across the world. We are into aggressive promotion of the tourism potential of our state and we are eyeing tourists from the states of Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. We hope to receive sound tourist footfall from these states.”

Chhattisgarh is an emerging MICE destination and its promotional activities are targeted to develop the flow of MICE tourists. Santosh Mishra said, “We have kicked off infrastructure development to cater to the needs of MICE tourists. Dandamani Tourist Resort at Chitrakote in the vicinity of Chitrakote waterfall has been rated as one of the best properties with facilities for MICE tourists. Besides this, some of our existing conference and convention facilities for MICE tourists are Huien Tsang in Sirpur and exhibition facilities at Johar Chhattisgarh in Raipur. Convention centres are coming up in Raipur.”

The state has experienced an upswing in the growth of domestic tourists over the last couple of years. Santosh Mishra added, “The domestic tourist arrivals are on the rise at a rate of 12 to 15 per cent on an annual basis over the past few years. We have received around 2.54 crore travellers last year. Global tourists constitute minuscule number since we are not virtually on the radar of global tourists. However, we are making an effort to woo more number of global tourists and we are initially starting with drawing 5,000 global travellers into our state every year. We would gradually increase the global tourist footfall by focusing on tourists from South-East Asia and the Far East.”