Govt to start tea garden trekking and village tourism in West Bengal

sarkar · Aug 7th, 2009, 13:23

This article is in today's TOI(Times of India) edition(7-aug-09).

Quote:

KOLKATA: The Centre has decided to market West Bengal as a tourism destination along with the North-East as a special
initiative.

We have Uluberia MP Sultan Ahmed, Union minister of state for tourism, to thank for the initiative to promote tourism in Bengal. That the union tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee is another Bengali, has also helped, said senior officials in the Kolkata office of India Tourism. The idea is to bring the Incredible India logo home to a number of locations in Bengal.

This is the first time that the union ministry of tourism has planned a series of road shows to give a fillip to domestic tourism. Thanks to Ahmed's insistence, the series will kick off from Kolkata on Monday to be followed by a show in Delhi, the date for which is yet to be decided. The two-day affair in the city has been organized in a boutique hotel. Here, even the little-known travel destinations will be highlighted along with popular tourists joints. The state's own handlooms and handicraft will also be linked to tourism in this road show.

"We will try to promote tourism in North Bengal differently. Instead of talking about the toy train and the panoramic view of Kanchenjungha in Darjeeling, we will highlight tea tourism instead. We have roped in tea gardens and tour operators for marketing this unique idea. Tourists can actually stay at the tea gardens and trek through the estates," said D K Baruah, regional head of India Tourism.

"We also plan to popularize treks to Sandakfu, Mirik, Tonglu and Tiger Hill and white-water rafting on the Teesta as part of adventure tourism packages. For sustainable tourism, several villages in Bankura, Burdwan and Birbhum have been identified for their handicrafts. Villages in Murshidabad, Hooghly and Nadia have been identified. We would encourage tourists from other parts of the country to visit these villages and get a taste of Bengal's indigenous products, much in the same way that Rajasthan has done for its own cottage industry," Sultan Ahmed told TOI.

Villages selected for the purpose include Mukutmanipur, and Ballavpurdanga near Shantiniketan.

Source : TOI

Tea garden trekking will be fun. Isn't it !.

bubai_56 · Aug 7th, 2009, 15:35

WOW... what a news... DIDI jindabad

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Aug 7th, 2009, 15:35	#2
bubai_56 Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: India Posts: 32	WOW... what a news... DIDI jindabad