With over 300 rooms, spread over 40 Ecotourism destinations and managed by with more than 600 members of Community Ecotourism, it’s a concept that had a very vibrant success drawing applauses of nature lovers from home and abroad.

Wildlife wing of the state forest department in collaboration with State tourism department, could realize a dream into a reality on the sands of Satkosia giving a huge kick-start to the novel idea thus giving a superb blend of man and nature.

Nothing succeeds like success and true to that, Odisha’s Ecotourism has emerged as an unique concept and first of its kind in India, hitting the horizons of nature tourism.         

Covid, as it did, came as a hurdle on the way and the Wildlife wing had to spring back to go for a Covid management underlining the needs for training and capacity building of Managers of various Ecotourism destinations.

Be it the beach resorts lapping at the Bay of Bengal or rivers jostling with hills, overseeing an unending expanse of hillocks, dales and springs, teasing the lovely steppes here and there and, the green pastures, the fabulous combo of slendor stood to attract people in thousands with an assured revenue earning.

The pandemic has taught us many things and to take on the underlying challenges of Covid, the Ecotourism managers also went through the mandatory training to maintain the guidelines while dealing with the tourists. 

The Ecotourism model of Odisha has received applauds from different corners of India & abroad being the only State having Community concept of Ecotourism. More than 600 community members are managing these properties and hospitality experts are engaged for regular training & monitoring. Around 60% community members are rural women. Presently 7 Ecotour Properties in Districts like Nuapada, Koraput, Sundargarh etc are under construction.

As such, since launching of Odisha Ecotourism in 2016, booking is through online portal ecotourodisha.com, cash booking or on-spot booking is very minimal restricted to off- season only as during winters most of the destinations remain booked in advance. The entry tickets are also booked online by night stay visitors to these properties hence no physical contact or paperwork for booking was ever needed.

Last year performance of Odisha Ecotourism was overwhelming in comparison to previous years. The State saw a leap in number of Eco-tourists and also revenue. More than 30,000 visitors have made night stays in these properties and the State has received revenue of Rs. 6.6 crore though after December 2019 there was gradual slowdown of tourists to State.

“The task becomes tougher when you have over 600 community members and about 60% of them being rural women but, the response has been very encouraging and we look forward to better times ahead” said Anshu Pragyan Dash , Divisional Forest Officer, Mahanadi Wildlife wing, Satkosia

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