Charter flights to take off for Orissa!

For the first time, chartered flights will bring in tourists from the UK, Russia and Australia to Orissa this year. Lanta Tour, a tour operator agency in Moscow, is committed to launch chartered flight operations to Bhubaneswar by December 2006. Orissa-based hotel groups - Tosali and Swosti -will be their collaborators in this project.

“The chartered flights to Orissa are the result of our concerted campaign in the Russian market in last two years,” discloses state tourism joint director Biranchi Mishra. “We participated in the two major tour operators conferences - Lesiure and Moscow International Travel & Tourism Show (MITT) - to persuade operators to bring in tourists on chartered flights to Orissa. Travellink Pvt. Ltd, a Bhubaneswar-based tour operator, is also bringing in a high-end tourists group from Australia on a chartered flight this year. “The group is coming for a 14-day tour to Orissa some time in December,” says Benjamin Simon, managing director of Travellink. According to him, spending by the group will be over Rs 35 lakh each.