Bhubaneswar: State Tourism Minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi on Thursday said over Rs 27 cr was paid for Advertisements in electronic media for the promotion of Odisha Tourism.
The sum was paid to the media outlets in the past five years to both state and national, Panigrahi added.
Replying to query of BJD legislator Kishore Kumar Mohanty, the Minister listed the year-wise amount paid to both state and national electronic media for ads.
The Minister said Rs 3,89,84,371 was paid in the year 2016-17, Rs 9.45 crore was spent in the year 2017-18 and Rs 4.67 crore was spent in the year 2018-19. However, nothing was paid in the year 2019-20 and Rs 9,48,65,448 was spent in the year 2020-21, he added.
Panigrahi said the state has witnessed a drastic fall in the number of tourists in the year 2020.
The Minister said while over 52 lakh tourists had visited Odisha in 2016, nearly 57.04 lakh in 2017, 61.94 lakh in 2018, 62.38 lakh in 2019 and only nearly 18.59 lakh tourists had visited the State in 2020.
