JOY ROY CHOUDHURY – Kolkata
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| (L-R): R Sushila, director, ITOC; Suddhabrata Deb, president, ITOC and Debjit Dutta, director on the board, ITOC unveiling the ‘Visit Bengal 2013’ theme and logo in Kolkata. |
With an aim to globally promote tourism offerings of West Bengal, key players and experts from the state’s inbound tourism fraternity have formed a 11 member board umbrella organisation- ‘Inbound Tour Operators Council’ (ITOC). “Our main focus will be to promote brand ‘Bengal’ to the world,” said Suddhabrata Deb, president, ITOC. “Earlier, we used to promote ‘Bengal’ individually in our own limited way, but now we will do it under the banner of ITOC. This will give a much need fillip to the efforts,” said Debjit Dutta, director on board, ITOC.
Spelling out the priorities for ITOC, R Sushila, director, ITOC said, “Our task will be to spot/ shortlist/ develop forceful products for international markets and to encourage the micro-level service providers in inbound travel as well as to build up their capacity to receive foreign tourists.”
Other task will be to ensure better positioning of West Bengal in national and global tourism market along with the cooperation from the public sector, hospitality, aviation industry and to provide Bengal’s inbound tour operators with effective guidelines to target the global market better to ensure a visible growth in foreign tourist arrivals (FTA).
The council will also motivate inbound tour operators into fair trade and sustainable tourism practices and benchmark inbound tour operators of the state with gradation and encourage national/ foreign operators to avail services from certified inbound operators who ensure them the necessary protection.
Dutta also informed that ITOC has decided to observe 2013 as ‘Visit Bengal Year’, an international campaign to enhance foreign tourist arrivals in Bengal as its focal programme. Product building, branding and global promotion will be the three vital components of ‘Visit Bengal’ campaign. “As part of this exercise, we will be participating in major international tourism events like ITB Asia, WTM, London, ITB Berlin,” he added.
