Tour operators rue lack of winter bookings

Central Nirvana Resort Darjeeling

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, Siliguri: The lack of winter tourists in the hills even after the withdrawal of the strike has worried stakeholders, who are pinning their hopes on a government event in February to promote tourism in the region.

The tour operators have set their eyes on the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM), hoping to use the event to encourage representatives of the national travel fraternity to send tourists to hills in the summer months next year.

"Even though normality has returned to the hills, the response from tourists is not up to the mark. Some people are coming to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and adjoining destinations but the number is too less. The queries have gone up but the rate of confirmation is low," said Sandipan Ghosh, the secretary of the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators' Association.

Some others in the industry are, however, hopeful that the bookings might go up from the middle of next month."But we have to wait for some more time to have a steady inflow of tourists, like we had been getting for the past few years," said Samrat Sanyal, a senior member in the travel trade.

The BTM would be held from February 16 to 18 next year. " It would help us in regaining confidence of the people as far as the Darjeeling hills are concerned," said Tanmoy Goswami, a member of a Siliguri-based travel house.