India’s Orissa state famous for its temples and heritage sites witnessed a total of 1.31 lakh foreign tourists in the past 3 years leading to the contribution of Rs 358.21 crore to the Orissa government's exchequer. The state's earnings from the foreign tourists have been significant despite the fact that Orissa receives less than 1 per cent of the overall international tourist arrivals in India. In the year 2009, the state recorded inbound arrivals of 27.52 lakh domestic tourists and 45,684 international tourists.
Orissa tourism department has so far identified 320 tourist spots across the state out of which 2 new tourist spots were chosen this year. Ganjam district located on the border of Andhra Pradesh has the most number of tourist spots (22) followed by Balasore and Cuttack districts at 21 each and Puri at 20. An estimated amount of Rs 190 crore, including of the Central and the state allocations, has been spent in the state on various tourism development projects from 2004-05 to 2009-10.
Some of the interesting places of Orissa includes Puri Jagannath Temple, Konark Sun Temple Lingaraj Temple, Chilka Lake, Duduma Waterfall, Nandankan Zoological Park among others.
