Tourismis thesecond biggestindustry in service sector aftersoftwarein India. ‘India'whichis promoted with the theme of “Incredible India” campaign by the Tourism ministry had been incredible since ages which has attracted travellers like Hiuen Tsnag from China in 07th century and the destination has been the major portion of the “Tsang Records of the West”. Prior to him the famous Buddhist monk Fa Hien travelled to India by foot from china in early part of 05th century. Marco polo and Nicolo Conti from Italy, Ibn-e-Battuta from Morocco, Meghasthenes and Ptolemy from Greece and the list is endless. The heterogeneity in language, culture, beliefs and the widespread geographical landscape with 7517 km of coastline makes it a natural destination for any traveller across the Globe. The macro scape of the country also reflects in almost each and every state of the country so do Odisha. Known as ‘Kalinga’ in the ancient times this state has a heritage of maritime trade which dates back to 350 B.C. So high was the trade activities that even in the 06th Century script “Manjushrimulakalpa” mentions the Bay of Bengal as Kalingodra or Kalinga Sagar. With trade links with the entire south East Asia this land also attracted many travellers since ancient times.
This study provides a detailed overview on both travel and tourism, including why they are considered as the fastest evolving sectors. The major objective of the study is to identify the evolution of global and Indian tourism sector, Understand Indian tourism destination marketing, study tourism industry in Odisha state, explore the present existing marketing strategies, analyse visitor perceptions regarding Odisha tourism, Challenges as well as opportunities of Odisha tourism and explore both private and government initiatives in order to promote tourism. Destination marketing is discussed in the chapter one. A research is vividly carried out on India and its tourism practices and the researchers concluded saying that, India isanticipated toproducesignificant interestsand could carry immensescope. Also, this chapter focuses on different marketing aspects associated with spiritual tourism; tourism infrastructure and its effect on Indian economy. It has been concluded that a descriptive method need to be adopted for intended investigations.
Literature review is carried out insecond chapter specificallyon three sectorsnamely, regional, global and India. A research survey is been carried out on Odisha tourism by applying various techniques in order to identify necessary solutions to destination marketing. However, by taking destination assessment into consideration, the literature review gave a brief description on destination image. In Odisha tourism, Destination assessment is measured either in a qualitative way or a quantitative way among foreign and domestic tourists. Certain objectives are set by marketing plan and changes are made at the end of each tourism season. Marketing plans require specif ic up gradations to make tourism more attractive. In general tourism is partnered with other marketing sectors to attract both national as well as international tourists. State tourism sectors concentrate more on different types of takes, whereas private partnerships and public partnerships are formed among local business and regional business to extend tourism dollars. Chapter three is divided in to three parts. The first part discusses aboutresearchdesign and research methodology. The second partpresentsdifferent sampling techniques and variables included in the study. Research hypothesis is considered and mentioned in third part. This chapter also presents a detailed overview on the major limitations of the study, analysis methods and data collection tools. A unique descriptive research method is been used for gathering required information for the analysis. In addition, this chapter explained the tools that are essential for analysing the gathered information. A survey is been carried by the researcher on frequency distribution, factor analysis, mean deviation, t-test, variance and regression, to identify respective solutions for research questions.
Lastly, chapter five present finding, necessarysuggestions and conclusion bygathering data from 592 foreign and domestic tourists. After gathering necessary information, a pre tested questions was prepared and served to both domestic and foreign visitors as a pilot study basis. Valid tourism tests were conducted and been used. Descriptive and factor analysis, an ova and regression are few tools andmethods used foranalysing tourism data. Totalfive chapters andthree hundred fifty-twoliteratures were been reviewed in this present report.
Destination Marketing, Impact Assessment, Marketing Strategy, Odisha Tourism
