OdishaLIVE Bureau
Key takeaway points from Odisha Tourism Conclave 2017
The recently concluded Odisha Tourism Conclave 2017 held at Hotel Swosti Premium, Bhubaneswar was a livid brainstorming day long congregation of Hoteliers, Policymakers, tour operators, bureaucrats, media persons, travel bloggers and other stakeholders. OdishaLIVE was the exclusive media partner for the event.
The first panel session titled ‘Branding Odisha from Smart City to Smart State through Digital Marketing/TV, Social and Print Media’ was composed of renowned personalities like Pranab Sarkar, President Indian Association of Tour Operators(IATO), Monica Nayyar Patnaik, MD , Sambad Group, Shibashish Mishra, CEO, BookingJini and Sri Nageshwar Patnaik, Senior Journalist. The session was moderated by Nilambar Rath, Founder editor and CEO, OdishaLIVE.
The discussion was lively with audience questions and observations being included in the end but the key points discussed were of prime importance. The talking point was whether tourism is in the agenda of the media and what else needs to be done by the media to appropriately promote tourism sector of Odisha. The Government too was not left alone with the panelists pointing out that the government is not providing ample support regarding digital promotion of various aspects of Odisha Tourism.
“It is imperative that the media records all the good things taking place in the space and media is the first tool of promotion for any such activity in the state” said Pranab Sarkar, President (IATO). Monica Nayyar Patnaik, MD ,Sambad Group in her address said “We would love to market Odisha around the world while focusing on growth, lifestyle development and the youthful nature of Odisha ecosystem and I would love to promoter Odisha Tourism.”
Mr. Shibashish Mishra, CEO, BookingJini talked about the growth hack of Rajasthan in 1984 when parts of a hollywood movie were shot and more recently in Dharavi in 2003 which was made popular by Slumdog Millionaire another movie. So he was of the view that we have to cater to the experience of travelling that they can keep coming back to relish time and again.
Senior Journalist Mr. Nageshwar Patnaik criticised the media for painting a bleak picture of the state thus proving deterrent to the image of the state in international structure. He lamented the gap between rural and urban pockets by claiming to make smart villages rather than smart city. “The media has been stripped of monopoly with the advent of digital media and it has helped people realise their goals and longings. Furhter we need smart bureaucrats, smart policy makers and smart citizens to move ahead” he added.
Moderator for the session Mr. Nilambar Rath summed up the proceedings by saying “we have to produce enough content on our product so that it reaches our target audience when they search the required information on our product and get our point across easily. The media dynamics and tools are changing and we have to adapt the right tools to take our product to the global level while preserving the image of Odisha as clean as possible. So all of us stakeholders should be responsible to sell Brand Odisha with as much fervor as possible.”
