The West Bengal Tourism has announced its plans to engage and reach out to travel trade and consumers throughout the country so as to promote the state as a ‘complete destination’. The state capital is the commercial hub of the entire region and also shares its borders with three major SAARC nations namely Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Not only is the state rich in culture, art and heritage, it is at the same time blessed with natural Sundrabans in the south to the Himalayas in the north.
During the last couple of years, the flow of tourist traffic in West Bengal has been steadily increasing. According to India Tourism Statistics published in 2013, West Bengal stands at ninth position among the states in respect of domestic tourist footfall, where as in case of international tourists the position of the state is sixth in terms of tourist traffic flow, accounting for almost six per cent of the national tourist inflow.
Umapada Chatterjee, director- tourism, Govt of West Bengal, said, “The present government has taken several initiatives to boost tourism in West Bengal. Going by the current trends, tourism is a fast growing and thus an impactful sector for the state economy. Keeping this in mind, we shall be actively participating in all major Travel- Tourism Festivals spanning across India, coupled with Road Shows and consumer campaigns in print, TV, Radio and digital platforms. Our aim is to invite as many domestic an international tourist to West Bengal and enjoy the complete destination.”
The Department has confirmed it’s participation in tourism fairs at Surat, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi etc. apart from the metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmadabad to showcase the tourism destinations of the state. Keeping in line with the growth chart, West Bengal Tourism will further expand its reach to tier II markets as well by participating in travel festivals even in markets like Lucknow, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Vizag, Coimbatore to reach out to the target audience in a result oriented way.
With perceptible increase of budgetary allocation particularly in publicity account, West Bengal Tourism is making its presence felt in the print media (both domestic and international), digital media(both domestic and international ), bill boards, hoarding, FM Radio, TV Channels, railway tickets, electricity bills, taxi tops etc. to reach out to the masses to depict the bounties of nature and the rich cultural tradition of West Bengal.