In the travel advisory released on August 17, toursits were advised about the religious tension between Hindus and Christians in the Kandhamal and Bargarh districts.
Last year's riots in Kandhamal district still casts a long shadow over Orissa with a recent travel advisory by the European Union asking its citizens to avoid Kandhamal and Bargarh districts.
"We have tried our best to convience European tour operators, but they showed us the advisory," Orissa Tour Operators Association leader Srikant Mishra said. "Europeans are not interested in visiting Orissa because of the last year's communal violence," Mishra said.
High-end tourists from Italy, Netherland, Belgium and other countries were afraid of visiting Orissa for no specific reason, he said and demanded that the state government intervene immediately. Tourism minister Debi Prasad Mishra, on his part, said "we will certainly take steps to ensure the visit of European tourists to the state."
The EU in its August 17 advisory claimed that religious tension between the Hindu majority and Christian minority, still remained high.
"We therefore advise against travel within the state and in rural areas, particularly in the districts of Kandhamal and Bargarh," it said. The EU issued the advisory even though diplomats comprising Second Secretary of British High Commission Ruth Wills, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy Gabriele Annis, Deputy Head of Mission in the Irish Embassy Pat Bourne, Second Secretary of Netherland Embassy Bart Paans and Deputy Head of Mission from Finland Embassy Lissa Valijento, visited the state last year.
The EU team members had then expressed satisfaction over the improved situation in the state, a senior home department official said. "There is no violence in Kandhamal since October, 2008. The people celebrated Christmas and New Year's Day as peace returned to the tribal dominated district," Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar told PTI.
The EU's advisory came at a time when the state government was targeting the visit of 2 lakh foreign tourists to Orissa, said the President of Tour Operators.
While there was fall in the number of foreign tourists to Orissa, the state government claimed that 40,000 foreigners visited it last year. "We do not believe in the government's claim," said a tour operator.
Foreign tourists were mostly interested in Orissa's culture, its forests, the wildlife and the people, he said. The state had witnessed large-scale violence in the aftermath of the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in August last year.
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