Tour operators show interest in tourism products of West Bengal , India
Kolkata: Tourism products from West Bengal ( India ) have been well accepted by foreign buyers at the World Tourism Mart London. Travel operators from Netherlands and Bangladesh have shown interest in the wide variety of tourism products on display by The Department of Tourism, West Bengal Government.
The Department of Tourism, Govt of West Bengal participated at the World Tourism Mart London for the first time independently by setting up an exclusive stall and offering a bouquet of specially designed tourism products from the state and also business promotions. The participation also offered opportunities for tourism investments in the state.
The Department of Tourism, during B2B meetings, marketed a wide range of tourism products from wild life experiences at Sunderban Biosphere Reserve, Darjeeling’s tea and toy train, the forests of Duars in North Bengal, the sea beaches at Dihga and Sagar Islands. Also on offer were religious and special interest tours that offered destinations from religious and archaeological centres.
A high level entourage comprising led by Mr. Ajit Ranjan Bardhan Principle Secretary Tourism Department, Government of West Bengal, Mr. Bhishamdeb Dasgupta, MD West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation and Ms. Sarbanti Sen, Assistant Manager West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation were at The World Tourism Mart London to promote tourism from the state.
The fair had participation from nearly 45000 senior travel industry professionals, government officers and representatives of the international media, who converged to buy tour products.
The state government’s stall was visited by Mr. Chermiah Hart, CEO, Hart World Culture Travel and Mr. Agnes Chung, Editor Nikao Medio (Canada). An estimated 3000 people visited the stall while 280 B2B meetings were set up.
During his visit to the West Bengal tourism pavilion Mr. Jagdish (Director of India Tourism-London), said that ‘’The efforts of the West Bengal Govt should pay off very well in terms of promoting the state as a tourism Destination as the state has immense beauty and culture. ‘’ He also spoke highly of the well made stand the government built at the fair.
Earlier the state tourism department had participated at ITB Asia, “The Trade Show for the Asian Travel Market”, that was held at Singapore between October 23 to 25 2013. The department will also participate at the ITB Berlin – The Berlin Internationale Tourismus-Börse to be held between 5th to 9th March 2014.
The Government of West Bengal is promoting the state as an ideal tourist destination with specialized tourism products.
Speaking on the success of the participation Mr. Ajit Ranjan Bardhan Principle Secretary Tourism Department, Government of West Bengal said “Inbound tourism has been accorded a priority in West Bengal by the honourable chief minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee.”
He also highlighted the advantage that foreign travellers have in West Bengal while on a holiday. With Kolkata being the Culture Centre of India, it has a well connected international airport and serves as a gateway to North Eastern India. Most people in the state understand and speak English making travel movement easy. Bengal cuisine is a well accepted variety that is well in demand.
The USP of participation at this international travel forum exclusively is to market the tourism opportunity in the state of West Bengal to tour operators across the world. Thus leading tour operators, hoteliers, airlines from West Bengal, along with the state tourism department got the chance to promote packages across the state to look forward to forge ties with buyers.
Participation in the fair will also help promote West Bengal’s tourism potential to thousands of journalists and industry’s leading trade magazines, business and travel journalists from nearly a 100 countries. In 2012, exhibitors from 180 countries had 170,000 visitors, out of whom more than half were trade visitors.
