Odisha Govt plans to promote tourism in handloom villages

Bhubaneswar: To promote Handloom village tourism among tourists, the Odisha government has decided to develop villages known for their weaves in the state.

The Handlooms, Textiles & Handicrafts Department and the Department of Tourism have structured interventions plan for the development and promotion of crafts and tourism sector in the state.

The state government has taken active steps in Integrating century old handloom legacy with tourism to promote rural tourism in order to popularize not only another form of tourism that will attract both domestic and foreign visitor alike, but also to provide opportunities to rural population to improve their socioeconomic condition.

A weaver’s craft village Bayanagram was inaugurated at Jaipur, Jagatsinghpur district. Work on developing Maniabandha Buddhist handloom village tourism and Tassar craft village at Gopalpur and many more is under progress.

It is observed that many foreign and domestic tourist visiting different handloom clusters of Odisha to understand the various techniques and methods pertaining to the crafts and also for business purpose.

“It is necessary for the artisans, community to have the skills set to engage the tourist, visitors in an informative and enriching hand on experience,” informed an official.

It has been proposed that 730 master weavers, awardees, entrepreneurs, artisans of 73 handlooms clusters across Odisha will be trained on soft skills development on hospitality and tourism management.

A two days training program for weavers of Cuttack zone was organized by Deputy Director of Textiles, Cuttack on 15-16 September.

80 weavers from Jajpur, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur districts were trained in the 2 days programme.

Dr.B.Swajan Asstant Professor, Bhabatosh Dehury and Dev Ghadei of IITTM trained the weavers on communication skills, personnel grooming, hygiene and soft skills, personality development, behavioral etiquettes.

This training will enable and empower the community to exchange valuable information to the tourist as well as quality service to the tourist. Thus Community capacity building is widely acknowledged as an important tourism development strategy. Community capacity building is necessary ingredient for success of community development. Tourism development and building the capacity for local communities need to progress hand on hand.