Going by the popular belief and the definition of the Government of Orissa, tourism primarily indicates the movement of people from one place to another for leisure. This invariably warrants a need to create required tourism infrastructure in rendering the necessary services to those people. Tourism, although a service, requires a concerted effort from different field of activities. Tourism remains one of the most popular hospitality sectors that has the potential to generate huge revenue (including foreign exchange) in return for minimum investment, considering the whole life cycle of the project. Further, the government gives top priority to this sector as it not only generates the desired revenue but also creates numerous job opportunities across the upstream and downstream activities. With this background, the government of Orissa is in need (and wants) to create tourism related infrastructure in Orissa. Orissa, with more than 400 kms of seashore and numerous beaches, has a natural potential for on-sea tourism. On-sea tourism infrastructure is one of many such areas that the government of Orissa is focusing on to develop those areas as a preferred destination. This paper is an effort to propose a concept plan (proposed master plan) to the government of Orissa on developing on-sea tourism infrastructure at three selected beaches of Orissa—Chandipur, Puri and Gopalpur, keeping the popularity of the beaches and geographical dispersity to each other.

Planned development of tourist destination compounds integrated development, which holds the key to attract tourists, by providing them their desired facilities, in a desired way. This is important because for tourists, not only the tourism facility matters, but also the mode of delivery of service. Planned development provides a blueprint to the authority to assess and commit funds and resources based on the needs of tourists. It can also be seen as a foresight to the concerned authority to allocate the required funds and other resources in a phased manner so that the allocated funds/resources match the requirements of the tourism related amenities, support other tourism related activities in the corresponding phases, and address the needs of the tourists (see Annexure 1 for more details on development of tourism infrastructure in India). This article takes the cues of on-sea tourism to organize the development of strategic infrastructure in the case of Orissa.

Chandipur-On-Sea: Still relatively undiscovered, where the sea retreats several kilometers everyday and life is serene and unhurried, Chandipur could be described as ‘The Place of Hidden Treasures’, where the water recedes about 3 kms offshore and proceeds back rhythmically after a regular interval everyday. The Bay of Bengal beach here is surely a typical one among the finest sea beaches of India. The lonely beach, whispering melody of dancing tamarisk trees, and the cool breeze creates a fantastic environment for leisure. Balaramgudi remains the largest fishing-harbor meeting point of river Budhabalanga and the sea. The area is also famous for Panchalingeswar, situated on one side of the peak of the mount Nilgiri. The temple of Lord Shiva on the top, and the roaring fountain is indeed ‘the traveller’s paradise’. Access to Chandipur by air is through the nearest airport at Bhubaneswar, which is 230 kms from Chandipur. The nearest railhead Balasore, is about 16 kms away and is on the Southeastern Railway. Chandipur is connected by smooth, wide, all-season road to Balasore, Bhubaneswar and Calcutta.

On-Sea Tourism, Orissa Tourism Development Corporation, Hospitality sectors, Mount Nilgiri, Orissa Tourism Development Corporation, Marketing strategy, Market research associates, Eco-tourism, socioeconomic culture, solid waste management, Tourism Marketing Research.