After a landfall in Puri on May 3, 2019 with a wind speed over 175 kilometres per hour the second most powerful cyclone – ‘Fani’ has taken a toll on the tourism industry of Odisha. The sector was already struggling and after the natural calamity, is almost paralyzed now.
Before the adversity, the state has started encountering more than 12 million tourist arrival in each year and with a 9-10 percent of annual growth, the industry had started to take a leap. A recent announcement of investing around Rs 20,000 crore in the tourism sector by 2021 has also been made by the government.
But Fani has severely damaged the state’s coastal tourism and areas like Puri, Chilika Lake, Konark, Gopalpur and few others have to suffer a lot. According to a tour operator, large number of tourists, particularly foreigners, cancelled their bookings after Fani hit the state. 
Usually the month of May happened to be one of the busiest months for shops, restaurants and hotels in puri which lay grimly vacant including the sea beach. For the beach – side venders, the business is completely zero now.
Expressing his grief one of the hoteliers in the city said, “I don’t think people will choose Puri this summer. Lots of bookings have been cancelled and future guests are in wait-and-see mode. I am not sure about any long term tourism impact, but the short term impacts are heartbreaking for local communities,”
On the other hand one of the tourists from West Bengal said, ” During summer vacation visiting puri is a ritual for our family. Though there was a cyclone alert, we did not expect it to be so severe and we move to Bhubaneswar, but losing all its charm, the capital city was not being spared.”
The extremely severe cyclonic storm caused massive damage to the tourism sector which is yet to be assessed. Major tourist spots of the state capital and nearby areas like Nandankanan zoo, Dhauli peace Pagoda, Raghurajpur and Pipili crafts village, Kgandagiri and Udayagiri caves, Chilika lake, Ekamra Van, Regional science Centre, Regional Museum of National History, parks and resorts along with the Marine drive between Konark and Puri have all been affected.
Recurring natural disasters is already an economic challenge for the state and Fani has only worsen the condition. According to one of the tour operaters of Bhubaneswar, “Fani has acted as a big blow to the tourism, particularly tribal tourism in Koraput, Malkangiri and
The state faces re-occurrence of such cyclonic storms quite frequently and Fani hit Odisha coast at a time when large number of tourists were expected to flock to the state. The economy of many nearby villages is shaken since it is heavily dependent on tourism alone. However, it is difficult to restore and rebuild the natural beauty of the affected sites and the Herculean task will certainly take several months to be executed.
