Iskcon devotees from abroad in Puri to attend the rath yatra. Picture by Sarat Patra

A considerable number of tourists from outside the country are coming to take part in the annual car festival in which Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra go on a nine-day visit to their aunt’s house at Gundicha temple.

Tourists, who had seen rath yatra earlier, have come again in Puri along with first-timers. More foreign visitors are expected to arrive on June 29.

Though the tourism officials in Puri said they had no data on the exact number of foreigners coming to Puri for this occasion, they sounded excited because the number of foreigners this time is more than average.

A rough estimation by tourism officials showed 500 foreign visitors coming to Puri on the occasion of rath yatra every year. Tourism officer Bijay Jena said they had conducted surveys at the bus stand and railway station and had found large number of tourists coming from different parts of the country.

“But we have no such mechanism for tracking foreigners. During our survey, if we find any information, we just record it. Last evening, during our survey, we found that a 60-member team from Japan had arrived,” said Jena.

There are a lot of foreign devotees who come through Iskcon. The state public relation officer of Iskcon Radhakant Das said many foreigners come to Puri on this occasion. But their number this year has not been available yet.

“We have a group of tourists from Russia who have come here. Many other foreigners are on their way to Puri,” he said. He said arrangements had been made for the stay of these foreign devotees at Baliapanda and Bhaktakutira. They are provided with Indian food prepared by Iskcon.

“If any of these tourists want to stay at hotels, they are also provided with such arrangements,” said Das.

Hotel owners in Bhubaneswar and Puri said they had got several bookings from foreigners during this time.

“Though most of the bookings come from devotees from different parts of the country, we also have some foreigners as guests. But the numbers are between 200 and 300,” said a hotel association member of Puri.