CII global boost to hill, Dooars tourism

VIVEK CHHETRI

Darjeeling, Feb. 24: The CII has invited around 50 stakeholders of the tourism industry from 13 countries across the world to explore the tourism potential of Darjeeling, the Dooars, and Sikkim.

“More than 50 people including tour operators, hoteliers and travel writers will be visiting India (as part of the programme). This year, we have decided to focus on north Bengal and Sikkim as we are of the opinion that tourism still has a lot of potential in this region,” Saugat Mukherjee, the regional director, CII (east), told The Telegraph over the phone from Calcutta.

The drive is called Destination East.

Mukherjee added that delegates from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Russia, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and China will start arriving in Calcutta from tomorrow.

“Twenty-eight invitees from Thailand, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Malaysia will visit Siliguri, Darjeeling, Gangtok and the Dooars. They will arrive in Siliguri on February 26 and have an interaction with the local stakeholders and the north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb,” said Mukherjee.

“We are not confining the programme only to field visits. We are also holding a buyer-seller meet in Calcutta on March 2 and 3 so that business opportunities can be explored by the visiting delegates and our stakeholders,” he said.

Of the 50 domestic invitees who will attend the event in Calcutta, 30 are from outside Bengal.

Twelve delegates from Thailand and Malaysia will be visiting the Sunderbans, while the rest of them will be going to Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

“Even though our primary focus area is north Bengal and Sikkim, we are trying to provide a platform to the rest of the tour operators based in east India,” said Mukherjee.

Tourism industry in the Darjeeling hills has been hit in the past three years because of the statehood agitation.

But even when the region is peaceful, tour operators complained about the absence of an aggressive marketing.

Around 3.5 lakh domestic tourists and 40,000 foreigners visit the hills in a year. Tour operators say it is time the figures increased.(Telegraph)