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With tourism being the priority area of the present government, there has been an overall effort to give the Tourism Department a makeover. In the first step, West Bengal Tourism revealed its brand new identity ‘Experience Bengal’. The use of the logo is associated with a new tagline ‘The Sweetest part of India’, not only to remind Bengal’s fame and glory for sweets, but to highlight the humility and sweetness of the people in front of the international and domestic tourists.
After launching the new logo, West Bengal Tourism has developed completely new sets of artworks for print, outdoor and FM jingles which are in sync with the new logo. Also a new promotional film featuring Shahrukh Khan with shorter edits for television are in the making.
The tourism board also participated in the TTF west series and organised a roadshow on the sidelines of TTF Ahmedabad.
Rajat Kumar Bose, Director Tourism, Government of West Bengal, informed that the government has come up with a Tourism Policy, 2016 which has laid down the action plan for development of tourism in the state. The policy has laid down six primary tourist circuits in the state namely- Darjeeling Himalayas, Dooars foothills, Bengal Heritage, Coastal Bengal, Kolkata and Sundarbans mangrove within which six primary products have been identified.
Efforts are on to make the official website of the Department more clutter free, visually appealing and contemporary in look for synergy. The website in its new form will be launched before the Festival season.
The budgetary allocation for tourism department has increased manifold over the years, from a meager Rs 44 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 257 crore in 2015-16.
To attract more private investment in the hospitality sector, the new West Bengal Incentive Scheme, 2015 has been launched with some special benefits like Floor Area Ratio (FAR) relaxation and extension of Tourism promotion assistance @75% of VAT for 5 years in respect of Mega projects.
As the concept Homestay is gaining ground, government is in the process of framing a Homestay Policy taking all the aspects of registration, booking, services, safety standards etc. Emphasis has laid on improvement of infrastructure, amenities, development of PPP model and MICE tourism.
As per the MoT statistics of 2015, West Bengal has scaled up one point to become the 8th preferred destination among the domestic tourists and 6th preferred amongst the international tourists. In 2015 West Bengal recorded a tourist footfall of 7,16,82,950 as against 5,04,15,685 in 2014.
Sourse: travelnewsdigest.in
