What was the core idea of the Marine Drive Eco Retreat?
The Marine Drive Eco Retreat is situated by the pristine Ramchandi beach, with the backwaters as a backdrop. There is a sanctuary across the road and Konark Sun Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is just a mile away. The experience of staying at the Marine Drive Eco Retreat is unique.
We want to invite tourists to explore India’s best-kept secret. We also need more per-capita expenditure from travelers for the sector to grow exponentially. We have one of the longest coastlines in the country. Activations such as the Marine Drive-Eco Retreat would give a huge facelift to Odisha.
We realized early last year that the Puri-Konark Marine Drive, despite housing a beautiful synthesis of heritage, nature, artistic finesse and food, was largely a day-tourism destination. Its potential as a premium beach destination was underexplored. Given the grave impact of Cyclone Fani, we had fortified our vision with the principle of sustainability. But our quest to develop the destination as an experience-rich beach tourism hub of global standards was undaunted.
The initial brainstorming sessions on beach camping and comparative studies on emerging segments, such as glamping, made us home in on this concept, which has worked wonders in destinations such as Kutch in Gujarat. Right from articulating the vision down to its specifics, to bringing about inter-departmental and multi-stakeholder consensus on the vision, to procuring the services of an experienced event curator, to planning the project development, including resource mobilization and infrastructure works, a lot of intellectuals, human and technological dedication has gone into it.
Why glamping?
This story is from the January 2020 edition of Hotelier India.
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This story is from the January 2020 edition of Hotelier India.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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