Bengal: Government move to boost tourism sector

Ever since Mamata Banerjee has assumed office, tourism industry has always been one of her priority areas

Lamahatta, a new destination in the  Darjeeling hills: File Picture

Avijit Sinha   |   TT  |  Siliguri   |  05.08.22 : The Trinamul government of Bengal has come up with an important decision to augment tourism activities and to boost private investment in the sector by forming six sector-specific committees and by including stakeholders of the tourism sector and stalwarts of Bengal’s industrial arena in such committees.

Ever since Mamata Banerjee has assumed office as the chief minister, the tourism industry has always been one of her priority areas.

She was instrumental in developing a number of new tourism sites like Lamahatta in Darjeeling hills and Bhorer Alo, the largest tourism project taken up by the state at Gajoldoba near the Teesta barrage in Jalpaiguri.

A picture of a recently sighted rare clouded leopard was released by the Bengal forest department on the occasion of the International Clouded Leopard Day on Thursday. A trap camera in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR) had recently clicked the picture of one clouded leopard (in picture) — marked as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — in the reserve area. The animal is found in some stretches of the BTR and also in some other reserve forests of north Bengal like the Neora Valley and Singalila National Park which are in Kalimpong and Darjeeling districts, respectively.

Report by our Alipurduar correspondent; picture courtesy: West Bengal forest department

On April 14 this year, the government had constituted a state level tourism task force that is headed by the chief secretary and comprises senior officials of different state departments.

“The task force was formed to increase tourism related activities. As a follow up move, six sub committees have been formed which will work in different sub-sector of tourism,” said an official of the tourism department. The six sub-committees which have been formed will focus on rural and tea tourism, heritage and cultural tourism, eco tourism, river tourism, MICE (meeting, incentives, conference and exhibitions) tourism and adventure tourism.

For the first time, the state has included prominent faces of the tourism industry and also some known industrialists and entrepreneurs of the state. They have put in the chairman’s posts of these sub-committees.

Among these persons include Jamling Tenzing Norgay (mountaineer and Tenzing Norgay’s son) who would look after adventure tourism, Rudra Chatterjee of Luxmi tea would look after MICE tourism. Also Harshvardhan Neotia will head the sub-committee on heritage and cultural tourism.

Raj Basu, a veteran in the tourism sector of east and northeast India who is based in Siliguri, said formation of these committees can largely contribute to the growth of the tourism industry.

“The state has decided on a participatory approach by including stakeholders and entrepreneurs in these sub-committees which will function under the task force. As the sectors have been specified, each committee will put efforts to develop the concerned area of tourism,” said Basu, who will head the sub-committee on eco tourism.

Samrat Sanyal, the general secretary of Himalayan Hospitality & Tourism Development Network – an apex body of tourism stakeholders – who has been included in the committee on adventure tourism, opined that concerted decisions and strategies can be made to draw investments.

“An integrated approach would help to bring in fresh investments. Also, these committees would act as forums for interacting with government officials on issues related to the industry,” said Sanyal.

Courtesy & source - The Telegraph