The Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh webinar series on 12th May 2020, titled, ‘Odisha-India’s Best kept secret’ took the participants on a virtual journey into Odisha. The webinar was 18th webinar under Dekho Apna Desh Webinar Series.

Shri Vishal Dev, Secretary (Tourism), Government of Odisha, set the tone for the presentation with his introductory remarks giving brief introduction to the State of Odisha and highlighting on the key selling proposition of Odisha such as its ancient civilisation, famous temples with kalinga style of architecture, long coastline endowed with beautiful beaches, arts and handicrafts, culture, popular dance forms such as Odissi, Gotipua, forests. He also informed about the State initiative in promoting Eco Tourism sites.

Mr. Benjamine Simon, Managing Director, Travel link Pvt. Ltd and Mr. Jitu Mishra, Co-founder, Virasat E Hind, the presenters of this 18th session of the Ministry of Tourism webinarseries spoke about Odisha’sbouquet of wonderful offerings which are unique in character such as ancient ruins and legendary shrines; Indigenous tribes and traditions, Buddhist heritage; Royal Heritage, wilderness; Adventure activities; Coastal breaks and sea fronts; picture perfect camp sites, culture, handicrafts, fair and festivals.

The virtual journey covered places like BhitarkanikaWildlife Sanctuary, Udaipur Beach , Manglajodi – unique wetland, Satpada, Chilika lake known for sighing of unique irrawady dolphins, Simlipal National Park ,Debrigarh National Park –Ecotourism site at Hirakud reservoir, waterfall, Silent Valley – Gorge, Daringbadi nature Camp ,Mahanadi Gorge , Bhetnoi ,Beach Locations ,Tribal heritage , arts and crafts, textiles , dance forms , festivals, cuisine

The objective of Ministry of Tourism’s webinar series is to create awareness about and promote various tourism destinations of India – including the lesser known destinations and lesser known facets of popular destinations.

For those who had missed these webinars, the sessions are now available on the https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbzIbBmMvtvH7d6Zo_ZEHDA/featuredand also on all social media handles of Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

The next episode of the webinar scheduled Thursday 14th May 2020 at 11.00 am, is titled ‘Mysuru : Craft Caravan of Karnataka’ and participants can join the webinar be registering at https://bit.ly/MysuruDAD

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NB/AKJ/OA