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Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai
Focusing on tapping the cultural and historic ties between India and Bangladesh, Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) is looking at creating new tourism products for the India market. With an aim to highlight the destination’s tourism offerings, the tourism board is targeting all travel segments and is working towards highlighting traditional festivals like Bengali new year, Durga puja, etc, religious and historical sites, as well as promote parental houses of eminent personalities like Jyoti Basu, who belonged to the communist party of India and was the chief minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000.
Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, joint secretary, director, BTB said, “Nowadays travellers are looking for experiential tours and hence we are working on creating new tourism products to cater to the needs of discerning travellers. We have lot of cultural similarities in culture with the people of Kolkata. So apart from other foreign countries we are keen on targeting travellers from Kolkata too. Tourism has been increasing from the India market with the number of visa applications going up.” Presently, about 700 visa applications are being processed daily.
There is also a new revised travel arrangement between Bangladesh and India this year to ease the visa process between the two countries. With this proposal, Bangladeshis will find it easier to visit India and Indians will find it easier to visit Bangladesh.
The tourism board is focusing on working closely with the travel trade industry in India. “With our B2B focus we will look at attending all the important travel trade fairs, organise workshops, seminars, conduct FAM trips, etc. We will also work closely with the government to strategise on tourism promotion activities,” added Chakraborty.
