Picture by Ashwinee Pati
Bhubaneswar: The state government is keen on using the men's hockey world cup here to extensively promote the city with officials making plans to conduct an array of festivals and activities to promote its tourism potential.
The government plans to resume Patha Utsav and invite more people to the events. The themes will centre around hockey and it will be conducted once a week. Similarly, the heritage walks will also continue regularly at Old Town and Khandagiri-Udayagiri.
Besides, as part of the city branding efforts, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the tourism department will identify top 20 places of tourist importance to improve infrastructure and enhance the experience of visitors.
Sources said infrastructure, including toilets and other public amenities, will either be introduced or developed at the sites identified. The development authority will prepare special brochures, promotional videos for the respective locations and link it with different websites.
"We plan to conduct festivals to ensure citizen participation. The men's hockey world cup has put Bhubaneswar on the world map and we want to use this stage and extensively use this opportunity," said a senior development authority official.
The new website - Bhubaneswar.Me - will also be updated regularly and linked with food and travel websites, including Trivago, TripAdvisor and Zomato.
The tourism department and the development authority will also organise an integrated city festival.
Krishan Kumar, development authority vice-chairman, said the city festival would specifically aim to increase citizen participation with the hockey extravagaza. "The festival will include components of tourism, culture and heritage. This particular festival will focus on generating public interest for the world cup."
Patia resident Niraj Jena said Bhubaneswar had gained prominence after hosting the Asian Athletics Championship last year, but the world cup will be a bigger event.
"The administration should use this stage and, hopefully, they are doing so," said the corporate employee.
