BHUBANESWAR: Homestays are the new priority for Odisha’s tourism sector. The state has identified six destinations and invited investors and homeowners to explore opportunities for setting up homestays where they can host both national and international tourists and provide them experiential tourism offerings.
The destinations that have been shortlisted for homestay development are Chilika, Daringbadi, Puri, Satkosia, Koraput and Hirakud. At the recently concluded Utkarsh Odisha, the Tourism department invited investors to explore the destinations for development of homestays. Of the six places, Puri and its nearby areas now have close to 50 homestays but a majority of them are just bed and breakfast facilities.
Officials said places like Koraput, Chilika and Daringbadi have a few homestays that offer experiential tourism. Koraput’s homestays are mostly cottages located within farms and coffee estates that offer coffee trails to tourists.
