Puri Hit after Cyclone Hit Parts of Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The Temple town of Puri is least affected by the recent cyclone and so some of the tour operators are not wasting time to turn the adversity to the advantage, and are willingly taking the visitors to the cyclone hit areas for sightseeing trips.

Industry sources said, the booking of the hotel room has jumped to 80% from a dreadful 5% recorded on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “We are receiving high inquiries from tourists eager to visit Puri and the booking are on,” Yogabrata Kar, Secretary of Odisha Tour Operator’ Association Said. “ Many of the booking made by the tourists are on request made by the tourists to take them to the cyclone hit areas for sightseeing trip and we are not sending them away,” Kar Said.

A day after the Phalin brought disaster in Odisha, some of the foreign tourists in Puri clicked photographs of the vandalized building, uprooted trees at collector Naba Kumar Nayak’s Official residence. The disaster cyclone has uprooted three banyan trees in the collector’s residence compound.

Hoteliers in Puri are excited and they are eagerly waiting for tourists to welcome. “We have completed most of the restoration work as the cyclone has caused minor damage. Guests have started to come to the hotel from Monday evening. Bookings of the hotels are full for the next 15 days and is expected to rise from the next coming days,”Sanjeeb Pattnaik, manager of an upscale hotel, said.

Puri Hotel Association Secretary Raj Kishor Patra confirmed that nearly 1 lakh tourist’s has arrived between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon. “The tourist’s traffic saw momentum after Howrah and Delhi bound trains started running from Sunday evening,” Patra Said.

Many of the tourists who were evacuated from Puri after the Philin alert and were shifted to hotels in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and other district are back to Puri. Powers though were not restored till Tuesday but hoteliers used generator sets. Out of the 436 hotels in Puri almost around 250 are near the beach and they were hampered by the cyclone. But now slowly life is coming back in Odisha as the departments are giving full time to the restoration work.
ref:http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-10-16/bhubaneswar/43105753_1_tourists-sunday-evening-disaster-tourism