CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
SCENARIO OF RURAL TOURISM IN WEST
BENGAL

WEST BENGAL: A BRIEF CONCEPT

Geography

West Bengal is located in the Eastern part of India and is the nation's fourth most populous
state. The State lies between 27013'15" and 21025'24" North latitudes and 85048'20" and
89053'04" East longitudes. It is bounded on the North by Sikkim and Bhutan, on the East by
Assam and Bangladesh, on the South by the Bay of Bengal and on the West by Orissa, Bihar,
Jharkhand and Nepal. The State stretches from the Himalayas in the North to the Bay of
Bengal in the South. West Bengal adjoins three international borders viz. Bangladesh, Nepal
and Bhutan. The capital and largest city of the State is Kolkata the third-largest urban
agglomeration and the fourth-largest city in India. Siliguri, Asansol and Durgapur are key
cities. Other major cities and towns in West Bengal are Howrah, Raniganj, Haldia,
Jalpaiguri, Kharagpur, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Midnapore, Tamluk, Malda and Cooch
Behar.

Climate

The climate of West Bengal varies from tropical savannah in the southern portions to humid
subtropical in the north. There are five main seasons in West Bengal: spring, summer,
rainy season, a short autumn, and winter. According to latitude, the northern part
of the state falls in the temperate belt and the southern part fall in the tropical belt. But the
southern part receives adequate rainfall and because of maritime influence is not
severely hot. Barring the mountainous parts of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, the
entire state experiences a warm wet tropical monsoon climate. Regional
differences are visible in the climate. In the western plateau region, rainfall is low and
variations in temperature are more common; maritime influence in the coastal region makes
the climate here moderate and pleasant. The summer temperatures in the state ranges
between 26°C (79° F) and 43° C (109° F) while the winter temperatures range from 10°
C (50° F) to 19° C (66° F). The annual rainfall varies in the different parts of the state.
North Bengal receives the highest rainfall, 200 to 400 cm. In the coastal areas rainfall
is about 200 cm, in the Ganga plain and in the central part of the state rainfall is about
150–200 cm and in the western plateau region the amount of rainfall received is
about 100 to 125 cm. Drought is a common phenomenon in the Bankura and Purulia
districts. Rainfall that occurs in the summer months often bring about heavy storms called
Kalbaishakhi. West Bengal has common monsoon climate, with hot, rainy and cold weather
seasons. Tropical problems prevail all around the state, but the hill stations usually are not
that hot. Dew, frost, hail can also be occurred often based on the seasonal climate.

Fig 4.1 West Bengal District Map

Economy
The major occupation of the inhabitants of the state West Bengal is agriculture. Paddy is the
main crop and the other crops grown are white, mustard seed, potato, jute, mango etc. The
total percentage of land fit for cultivation is 71%. West Bengal is the sixth largest economy
in the country after Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat
and recorded a gross state domestic product Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of US$
140.56 billion in 2015-16.
The state's GSDP expanded at a compound annual growth rate Compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of 10.57 per cent from 2004-05 to 2015-16. Agriculture is the chief occupation
in the state and contributed 18.8 per cent to the GSDP in 2014-15. West Bengal is the largest
producer of rice in India. Rice production for the state totalled 16.1 million tonnes in FY
2015-16. West Bengal is also the largest fish producing state in India. During 2015-16, the
state produced a total of 1.63 million tonnes of fish in comparison with a produce of 1.61
million tonnes during 2014-15. As of June 2016, West Bengal had a total installed power
generation capacity of 9,988.4 megawatt (MW). (Source: Website, India Brand Equity
Foundation).

Languages spoken
Bengali or Bangla, Hindi and English are the commonly spoken languages in West Bengal.
But the major people of the state West Bengal speak in Bengali or Bangla. As the national
language, Hindi is also very common language in this state. Basically English is the official
language and most of the educated people of this state can understand and speak English.
Population
As per details from Census 2011, West Bengal has population of 9.13 Crores, an increase
from figure of 8.02 Crore in 2001 census. Total population of West Bengal as per 2011
census is 91,276,115 of which male and female are 46,809,027 and 44,467,088 respectively.
In 2001, total population was 80,176,197 in which males were 41,465,985 while females
were 38,710,212. The total population growth in this decade was 13.84 percent while in
previous decade it was 17.84 percent. The population of West Bengal forms 7.54 percent of
India in 2011. In 2001, the figure was 7.79 percent.
 West Bengal Populations

Approximate Population 9.13 Crores 8.02 Crore

Actual Population 91,276,115 80,176,197

Male 46,809,027 41,465,985

Female 44,467,088 38,710,212

Population Growth 13.84% 17.84%

Percentage of total Population 7.54% 7.79%

Sex Ratio 950 934

Child Sex Ratio 956 960

Density/km2 1,028 903

Density/mi2 2,664 2,340

Area(Km2) 88,752 88,752

Literacy 76.26 % 68.64

Major Foods
Bangali cuisine is basically East Indian cuisine, where rice and rice-derived dishes is the
major portion of a diet. Presently major of the people preferred rice with fish (Mach-Bhaat).
It is one of the oldest vegetarian culinary heritages. The cuisine of West Bengal is largely
influenced by the landscape, the people and the crops grown in various regions. It is not
only memorable for its subtle variety and strong flavours, but also because of the legendary
hospitality of West Bengal. There is a specific order of serving of savouries and sweets,
curries and rice or rotis, and a person who does not know this is not considered to be well
trained in the art of hospitality. Different regions of the state offer a rich and varied variety
of dishes, many of which have become a rage all over the country.
Major Dress
West Bengal has rich culture and heritage. 'Bangla' or ‘Bengali’ is the language of a Bangali
or people of West Bengal. In West Bengal there are people of all sects of religion however
Hindus have major population. The traditional dress of women is Sari or Salwar. The
traditional dress of males is 'Dhoti and Kurta', Lunge and Punjabi.
Cultural Scenario of West Bengal
Culture is the systems of knowledge. Culture is the sum total of ways of living by a group
of human beings that is transmitted from one generation to another. Bangali culture is the
culture of the Bangali people. Bangali culture is rooted in the arts and crafts of the life of
Bangali in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore and across the globe.
Bangali culture is expressed in language, literature, cultural activities and also in the very
way of life.
Folk Music and Dance of West Bengal
Simplicity and sweetness are the characteristics of folk songs. The age of the folk songs
are unknown, many songs are born at the time of hard work in the fields and when engaged
in different trades. Some songs are born at domestic rituals, temple festivals, praising the
village deities for special favours, many ballads are also born out of the stories about great
heroes. Folksong is the clear mirror chosen by nature to see her own face. Some of the
important folk songs sung buy the village people are:
 Baul
 Bhatiali
 Bhawaia
 Kobi (pala gan)

West Bengal is deeply rooted in a great tradition of folk arts and crafts. The folk dances and
music of Bangali people represent the ethos, beliefs, aesthetic values and melody of the
region. Traditional folk dances and music are conducted and during festivals and community
functions. The most notable folk Dance in West Bengal is Chow in Purulia district.

Festivals in West Bengal

The customary tradition of celebrating Durga Puja is followed by the people of West Bengal
from ancient periods. Today, the Festival has crossed not only the local boundaries of the
state but also has successfully spread its magical spell beyond the national boundaries. The
celebrations of Durga Puja are cherished through four whole days. Saptami being the first
day, is followed by ashtami, navami and bijaya dashami. Be it the pious and popular
Festivals of Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Saraswati Puja and Doljatra or be it the glorious Events
of Poila Baisakh, Ganga Sagar Mela and Shivaratri, the store of fiestas seems infinite in
West Bengal. Eid is another major Festival which is celebrated by the Muslim communities
of West Bengal as well as Islamic sects of other parts of the world. While the Diwali
Festival is celebrated by the people of North India, Kali Puja is followed to worship
Goddess Kali in West Bengal. Christmas is the biggest Festival of Christian people who
celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on this day. Doljatra is a major Event of West Bengal as
on this occasion people splash each other with colors. Poila Boisakh is yet another
significant Event in the calendar of Bengalis as on this day they welcome the New Year.
There is no denying the fact that Festivals and Events provide a charismatic effect to the
entire identity of West Bengal.

Wildlife, Flora and Fauna

The wide range of climatic conditions helps West Bengal boasts of its rich variety of
vegetation in the country. The vegetation comprises some 10,000 species of plants. The
concept of forest and wildlife conservation is very ancient to West Bengal. Since time
immemorial, wildlife here has enjoyed a privileged position of protection through religious
philosophy. Bengal's flora and fauna are as diverse as its cultural variances. The West
Bengal has many fascinating sights for its nature lovers. Home to many rare and unique
species – the Royale Bengal tiger, lion, the one horned rhinoceros, elephant, many species
of deer, bears, leopards, monkeys, antelopes and birds. There are 315 threatened species of
fauna, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, Fish and Invertebrates in West Bengal. The
main fauna in West Bengal are fishes from rivers, ponds, and sea, prawns, crabs and
oysters. The major flora of the state is mangoes, jackfruits, coconut etc. The main cash
crops are paddy. The presence of large numbers of mangroves in the place protects land
from soil erosion and the presence of these trees helps the growth of fishes too.
 CHAPTER II
TOURISM IN WEST BENGAL
(Literature review)

Introduction

Tourism plays an important role in the socio-economic development of our country. It is

also one of the major sources of earning foreign exchange. West Bengal is one of the prides
of the Eastern India’s tourist destination with its enduring heritage, century old temples
festivals and artistic performances. West Bengal is a state with several distinguished tourism
features. This state is geographically located at the eastern part of India. This is a historically
important state in India with rich heritage, refined civilization and resilient culture. Culture,
literature, music, ancient temples, a long coastline, rich history with distinct architecture
and vibrant ecology make West Bengal a complete tourist destination. It has attractive
mountains, verdant vegetations, sandy beaches, mammoth monuments, timeless temples,
fabulous wildlife, scintillating sculptures and reverberating rural life. It has picturesque
spots, continuing heritage, cultural confluence and aesthetic magnificence. West Bengal has
a rich potential for excellence in tourism with vast panorama of scenic beauties, sounding
cataracts, multihued flora and fauna, natural forests, variety of wild animals, architectural
wonders, enchanting beaches and bays, monuments, pilgrim centres, arts, drama, music,
paintings, dance, folk arts, material arts and so on. It attracts more and more domestic and
inbound tourists who visit out state, to enjoy the culture, rich tradition, flora and fauna and
the vast stretch of beaches. Each tourist has certain individual priorities. West Bengal
possesses the tourist potential to satisfy their aspirations. On the interest of the tourist
various types of tourism practiced in West Bengal. Pilgrimage centre are the symbols of
spirituality and national integration and communal harmony. Hundreds of temples in West
Bengal explain the glorious heritage of repositories of the magnificent art form. Temples
from the pre Christian era as well as those from the 20th century exist in West Bengal,
where the ancient rulers have made immense contribution to the growth of temple art. Based
on these aspects, West Bengal distinguishes itself from the rest of the states (or country). By
strengthening the existing infrastructural facilities, we could not only promote tourism but
also serve better to the local community. Tourism promotion also creases employment in
urban as well as rural areas. West Bengal has a variety of Tourism products and known all
over the world for its rich cultural heritage. West Bengal offers a remarkable range of
destinations and experiences within a single state. It is a land of contrasts -in climate,
vegetation, scenery, and landscape and has a rich diversity of ethnicity, culture, languages
and religion. It is a truly unique state because it stretches all the way from the seas to the
Himalayas. It has always been a traveller’s delight as there are fantastic trips set around the
misty and romantic hill stations of Kalimpong and Mirik, diverse wildlife and verdant
teagardens of the Dooars, historical monuments and temples of Murshidabad and Bishnupur,
wide and splendid beaches of Digha and Mandarmoni and-the lush forested islands and
meandering rivers of Sunderbans- destinations that are great revelations. One of the
culturally richest state in India, it is the home of the Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore
and Amartya Sen. West Bengal can also take pride in being the birthplaces of the some of
the distinguished personalities who are known the world over like Acharya Jagadish
Chandra Bose, Prasanta mahalanobish, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and
work places of social reformers and humanists like Sister Nivedita and Mother Teresa. The
state has immense tourism potential and this is also reflected in the increase in the tourist
footfall over the last few years.
Vision Statement for West Bengal Tourism
West Bengal aims to become a preferred tourism and tourism-related investment destination
by leveraging its unique geographical setting along with its various tourism- related assets.
It will develop necessary infrastructure and promote tourism in an integrated manner which
will not only bring in more investment and further the socio- economic goals of the
Government, but also ensure that all these are in conformity with the relevant acts, rules and
regulations relating to environmental protection. The overall aim is to see that the tourism
sector contributes towards improving the quality of life of people in general.

TOURISM AS AN INDUSTRY IN WEST BENGAL

'Tourism Industry', as it is understood in the modem sense of the term, means and includes
all services and facilities that attract tourists and make their visit and stay as comfortable
and meaningful as possible. The fundamentals of tourism as an industry lie in adding value
to the existing locations or creating new areas/sources of tourist attraction to encourage
people to undertake tours. Tourism Industry, therefore, includes, among others, the
following Accommodation Projects: (i) Hotels, (ii) Resorts, (iii) Motels, (iv) Apartment
Hotels, (v) Heritage Hotels, (vi) Yatriniwas, (vii) Yatrika, (viii) Guest Houses (excluding
Government guest houses and corporate guest houses for use of their own touring officials
at nominal charge), (ix) Paying Guest Accommodation. State Government to accord the
status of 'Industry' to Tourism, Commerce & Industries Department issued a Notification
No. 945-CI/H-4F/26/92 (Pt.) Dated 11 September, 1996 and No. 302-CI/H/4F-26/92 (Pt)
dated March 17, 1997 amending West Bengal Incentive Scheme, 1993 (for Medium and
Large Scale Industries so as to incorporate a group of tourism units for benefits there under.
Similar notification has also been issued by Cottage and Small Scale Industries Department
amending the State Scheme of incentives for cottage and small scale industries, 1993. As a
result, the incentives and benefits under the West Bengal Incentive Scheme, 1993 (for
Medium and Large Scale Industries) as amended up to 2004 is now available to the
following tourism units only :
(a) Hotels, (b) Motels, (c) Heritage Hotels, (d) Yatriniwas, (e) Yatrika, (f) Resorts, (g)
Railway Travel Projects on the pattern of "Palace-on-Wheels", (h) Aerial Ropeways and
(i) Camps and facilities encouraging adventure tourism. Similar benefits are also available
to small scale tourism units under the amended State Scheme of Incentive for cottage and
small scale units, 1993 as amended up to 2004. It would be the policy of the State Tourism
Department to actively promote, support and assist all other tourism units, projects and
activities and constantly endeavour to remove any bottlenecks and difficulties in their
implementation.

TOURISM POTENTIALS OF WEST BENGAL: AN OVERVIEW

Tourism Products of West Bengal

West Bengal, considered by many as the cultural centre of India, is a land of varied charms
with snow-capped mountains in Darjeeling in the north followed by vast expanse of forest,
tea plantation and wild life in Dooars region in the foothills. There are heritage sites in the
middle in Maida, Murshidabad and Nadia districts and forest tracts in the western districts.
The largest delta of Sunderbans forms its southern coast. West Bengal, in fact, offers all
components of tourism viz., leisure, holidaying, beach, pilgrimage, heritage, mountaineering
or adventure and convention tourism. The State of West Bengal is a microcosm of the vast
Indian sub-continent with its myriad physical forms. The mighty Himalayas in the north and
the Bay of Bengal in the south protect the State. The State presents the full spectrum of
Nature's splendour with hills, forests and wild life sanctuaries, beach resorts, rivers, places
of historical importance, ethnic culture and varied aspects of adventure tourism. The
northern boundary of the State is endowed with nature's great bounty. It consists of outlying
hills of the great Himalayas. The panoramic view of snow-capped Kanchanjungha from
Darjeeling district is a perennial attraction to all tourists; the verdant tea gardens in the
foothills of the Himalayan tracts project a charming scenic beauty. The western part of the
State is endowed with beautiful hilly terrain - Ayodhya Hills, Matha Pahar, Panchet Hills,
Khatra-Mukutmanipur, Susunia Hills, Jhargram and Kankrajhore. About 11,879 sq.k.m.
of the State, which is 13.98 percent of the total geographic area is covered with forests. The
unending stretch of virgin forests, criss-crossed by the river Teesta and her innumerable
tributaries at the foothills of Himalayas, are called the Dooars Valley. The southern part of
the State boasts of world's largest region of mangrove forest called Sunderbans, the largest
delta in the globe. It is perhaps a unique place on the earth. The nature has created an abode
of perfect blend of the savage power and the incredible beauty with consummate artistry.
West Bengal offers coastal-marine ecosystem along the districts of South 24 Parganas and
Purba Medinipur. Bay of Bengal is situated to the South. The districts of Purba Medinipur
and South 24- Parganas are having sandy beaches at Digha, Shankarpur-Chandpur,
Dadanpatrabarh, Bakkhali, Frasergunj and Sagardwip. These places arc noted for their
calm seas, wide flat golden beaches hemmed with casuarina groves and seafood
delicacies. The indomitable river Ganges flows through the State's rich alluvial plains to
reach the Bay of Bengal in the South. Teesta in North Bengal is another perennial river.
These two rivers offer potential for river cruise, boat racing, river rafting, kayaking and
other water sports. West Bengal witnesses the largest assemblage of habitats for numerous
flora and fauna. The State occupies only 2. 7% of total area of India but possesses more than
12% of floral diversity. The forests of West Bengal represent, more or less, the animal world
in its totality. These include the Royal Bengal Tiger of Sunderbans, elephants of northern
districts and the great one-homed rhinos of Jaldapara and Garumara. The largest estuarine
crocodile in the world, olive ridley turtle, clouded leopard, the tottering bear, the barking
deer, the sneaking snakes and other reptiles constitute a part of the eco- system of the State.
In addition, a few hundred species of birds including seasonal and migratory birds have
added flying colours to the forests and eco-system of the State. The heritage assets of the
State originate from several centuries of the history of Bengal. In ancient and medieval
times the region was ruled by Hindu Kings, Buddhist Kings and later by Sultans or
Nawabs. West Bengal served as crucible where Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Vaishnava and
Christian cultures melted to produce rich cultural heritage. The periods between 18th and
19th century termed in the history as Bengal Renaissance started promotion of social and
cultural activities in undivided India with Bengal Presidency as the epicentre. Fairs and
festivals of West Bengal, a reflection of the State's socio-cultural speciality, add a unique
flavour to her cultural richness.

West Bengal is having relatively optimistic trend in the tourism sector, the growth and
employment generation in west Bengal several places like Sundarbans, Digha, Darjeeling,
Dooars where key employment generation and key economic activity is evolving around
tourism, where people are directly and indirectly dependent on tourism. West Bengal is full
with natural resources. It is having good connectivity with other part of India as well as
abroad with the help of railway and air transport. The cost and expenses are also less
compared to other states. There must be some lacunas which need to be explored. West
Bengal is home to some of the best national parks in the country. The distinct climate and
topography of West Bengal helps in keeping the diversity of flora and fauna flourishing.
The national parks of the state not only are wildlife resources, they are surrounded by
some of the most exotic locations, which make a trip to these parks value. The most
famous beyond imagination is the Sunderbans National Park. Earned recognition for the
Royal Bengal Tigers, it also is the largest Mangrove forest in the world.
Most states in India are fortunate to have one hill resort, but West Bengal the gateway to the
Eastern Himalaya. A land of infinite attraction with breath taking views of Kanchanjunga,
bewildering variety of flora and fauna, colourful festivals, bush green tea gardens, inching
adventure spots, laundry trekking rocks, perfect solitude. All this makes the East Himalayas
your chosen destination. Tourism in West Bengal is a wonderful revenue earner for the local
people. West Bengal Tourism has enhanced the economic activities of the state. Due to the
increasing number of visitors that the state is receiving every year the West Bengal
Government is also taking interest in developing the Tourism Industry here.
Trekking in the Darjeeling Hills began almost a century ago. In fact, the first organised
trekking route in India was established here along the Sangalila range. The most popular of
treks is the one through high altitude areas across the Singalila range in Darjeeling. The trek
starts at Maneybhanjang (2134 m), goes to Meghma (2900 m), Toughu (3070 m), Gairibas
(2621 m), Sandakphu (3636 m), and Phalut (3600m). The fourth and last day is the return
trek to Darjeeling which may be taken along the along the same route or via Ramman,
Rimbick and Bijanbari. Trekking in Ajodhya Hill (in Purulia district) or camping in
Biharinath hill can bring the hardcore untamed adventure feelings.

Beach Activity holidays in Junput , Shankarpur , Sagardwip , Frazerganj, Digha or the trip
to Bakkhali can also create the ample scope of adventure and stimulation for the tourist.
Other major excitements of National Park in West Bengal can be huge with Jaldapara
Wildlife Sanctuary, Buxa Tiger Reserve. Dooars, is the habitat of the rare one-horned
rhinoceros, the mighty bison, the spotted deer, the barking deer, huge tuskers, fearsome wild
boars and a variety of birds and animals. Elephant safaris can be enjoyed at the Sanctuary.
The forest is mainly savannah covered with tall elephant grasses. The wild life, in addition
to one-horned rhinos, consists of Royal Bengal Tigers, wild elephants, deer, Sāmbhar,
barking deer, spotted deer and hog deer, wild pig, bison and a number of birds. Elephant
ride is arranged for viewing of wild life preferably at dawn. West Bengal is ranked 6th in
terms of foreign tourist visit but it can be uplifted and it is not also having good position in
terms of domestic tourist visit compared to the states like Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamilnadu, Karnataka as well as Uttarakhand.
Whereas west Bengal as a state is having the traditional approach this is only catering to the
main stream tourism. West Bengal is blessed with natural forest area sea beeches, hill
station, rivers those tourism resources are somehow not properly utilised. It can be seen that
the tourism market is changing because of the changing need pattern of the modern tourist
so for that reason tourism is becoming much more challenging service product. To sustain
with the changing requirement of the modern tourism, any destination needs to explore the
hidden opportunities with proper planning and management.
West Bengal is a live museum. Every nook and corner of West Bengal breathes history and
heritage. More or less all the districts are serving as the treasure house for art and
architecture of Bengalis. Temples, idols, Mosque, paintings and art works of West Bengal
are mostly like the Mughal and the British periods. The state West Bengal gets its name
from the division of the country by the British at the time of freedom.
Dakshineswar and Kalighat Temples in Kolkata City, 108 Temple and Sarbamangala
Temple in Burdwan Town in Burdwan district, Tarakeswar Shiv Temple in Hooghly
district, Tarama Temple at Tarapith in Birbhum district; Bandel Church in Hooghly district,
Kolkata Church etc. some famous mosques in Kolkata viz Tipu Sultan Mosque, Nakhoda
Mosque etc. attract both domestic and foreign tourist. Some tourists visit West Bengal for
fun or for enjoying their leisure. Their usual choices of destinations are hill tourist
destination Darjeeling. This place draws large number of local and international tourists.
India’s famous beach Digha is located at Sourthan portion of this state, West Bengal. Other
famous beaches are located at Mandermoni, Shankarput are the major destination for leisure
tourists. Kolkata is the heart of Bangali culture and tradition. The cultural heritage of the
state is very popular among the tourists. Ancient tradition, rich cultural heritage, dance
forms like Rabindranittya, various forms of music including Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul Gitti
all are flourished for centuries. The inspiring sculptures at various places of this state attract
most of tourists to West Bengal. The silk sarees of Murshidabad, Tanth sarees of Fulia and
Dhoniakhali are very famous all over the country.
The abundant Natural wealth of West Bengal attracts tourist. West Bengal also has the
distinction of flora and fauna habitants in different sanctuaries, National parks and Tiger
Reserve. Rural tourism and the adventure activities in West Bengal are gaining much
popularity among the tourists especially youth. The trekking programmes at Ayadha Pahar
in Purulia district and Darjilling attract the tourists. West Bengal has the pioneered India’s
medical tourism which attracts patients from other states and even neighbouring countries
like Bangladesh, Bhutan Nepal etc. The well equipped Corporate Hospitals, less waiting
time, skilled medical professionals are the major advantages to promote medical tourism in
this state. Thus, Tourism in West Bengal has seen many levels. In what follows, a new
opportunity for Tourism in West Bengal, namely Rural Tourism is presented.

Destinations which Attract Tourists

Some important tourist destinations in West Bengal are given below-
 Santiniketan: 136km from Kolkata, Santinikatan is the brainchild of India’s most
illustrious poet, philosopher, painter, and philanthropist, Rabindranath Tagore.
Only 3km away from Santiniketan is Sriniketan, the rural reconstruction center,
founded by the poet. Fine batik prints on textiles and leather bags are famous
products of Sriniketan.

Murshidabad: Situated 209 km North of Kolkata, Murshidabad has a tradition of

handicrafts in silk, ivory carvings and bell metal-ware. Standing right beside
Bhagirathi is Nizamatkila-an Italian style palace built by the British. Across
the river among places to visit are Khusbag, the garden where Nawabs were
buried. Opposite to it is the Moti Jhil or Pearl Lake. The Hazarduari-the mansion
 of thousand doors is now a museum of the Nawab dynasty’s belongings. Great
Imambara, Moti Jhil (pearl lake) and the impressive ruins of Katra Mosque, built
in 1723, and Medina mosque are other attractions. A Jain Parasnath Temple is
located at Kathgola. Another interesting palace is Wasif Manzil with its unique
collection of curios, paintings, arms and costumes.
 Around Murshidabad: The Char Bangla Temple in Baranagar is quite famous.
The Bhavaniswar Temple, too, is one of the finest examples of terracotta
sculpture in West Bengal. Besides the crumbling mansions and cemeteries of the
English and Dutch settlements, Bahrampore is famous for raw silk (tussar)
production.
 Sunderbans: Sunderbans is a marshy mangrove jungle south of Bengal and is the
largest estuarine forest in the world. This dense tropical forest, inhabited by wild
animals, is the home of the legendary Royal Bengal Tiger. The wildlife in the
Sunderbans includes boars, spotted deer, and rhesus monkeys, fishing cats, otters,
civets, Salvador lizards, estuarine crocodiles and olive ridley turtles.
 Nadia: Connected by bus service form Krishnanagar and Kolkata and a ferry ride
across the Bhagirathi river from Nabadwip, Mayapur is the headquarters of
ISKCON. The Chandroday Temple, set amidst a garden, is a picturesque sight.
There are quite a few big and small temples also.

 Nabadwip: 19km from Krishnanagar and 120km north from Kolkata, Nabadwip
stands on the banks of the Bhagirathi River. Sonargouranga, the temple with the
golden statue of Sri Chaitanya, is the most important shrine here.

Krishnanagar: 118km north from Kolkata, Krishnanagar on the banks of Jalangi

River was the residence of Maharaja Krishnachandra, a great patron of art and
culture. Places worth visiting are the Rajbari (Royal Palace) with a beautiful Durga
temple in the courtyard. The Roman Catholic Church is famous for its
architectural and sculptural splendor. Others include the College Bhavan
(1846), The Public Library (1856), the Krishnanagar Academy and the Protestant
Church.
 Bardhaman: Scattered in and around Bardhaman are quite a few places of
interest. The majestic Curzon Gate, now know as Vijay Toran, was erected in
1903 in Lord Curzon‘s honour. One km from the Gate is the Royal Palace. The
 tomb of Sher Afghan, the last of the Afghan Jaigirdars in Bardhaman (Burdwan),
is located at Pir Baharam in Kanchannagar.
 Kalna: The temples at Kalna are built of bricks with intricate terracotta designs.
Unique among the temples are the ornate Palki Krishna Chanraji Temple and the
Pratapeswar Temple, a 108-temple complex dedicated to Lord Shiva.

 Digha: 187km southeast of Kolkata on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, Digha is a
popular beach resort with a 6km long and hard beach. It is the only seaside resort
supported by a wide variety of hotels and private lodges. Chandaneswar, an old
Shiva temple, 8km. Dariapur, 45km, famous for an ancient temple associated with
Bankimchandra’s novel Kapal Kundala. A fish farm located 40km away at
Junput is worth visiting.
 Ganga Sagar: This is the place where Gangasagar Mela, the largest fair in West
Bengal, is held on the occasion of Makar Sankranti (mid January). The fair draws
lakhs of pilgrims from all over India.
 Darjeeling: Facing the towering Himalayas and surrounded by high green hills
covered with coniferous forests, Darjeeling is perched, literally, on the roof of the
world. The mini train, which chugs off from New Jalpaiguri provides an exciting
journey through deep jungles, rice fields, tea gardens and pine forests. The view
of the Kanchenjunga from Observatory Hill or the sun’s play on the highest
mountain of the world, Everest can be seen from nearby Tiger Hill.

Tourism Circuits in West Bengal

Some of the ongoing or proposed tourism circuits in the state are as listed below:

 Islampur-Lalbagh-Jiagunj

 Western Dooars tourism circuit

 Ganga Heritage River Circuit

 Gar Mandaran - Kamarpukur - Joyrambati Circuit

 Digha - Bakkhali - Mandarmani Circuit

 Tea Tourism Circuit at Dooar

 Beach Tourism Circuit in Purba Medinipur: Digha –Shankarpur –Tajpur –Junput

 – Mandarmani.

 Religious & Pilgrim Tourism: Ganga Sagar – Birbhum (Tarapeeth – Bakreshwar

– Nalhati – Fullura – Saithia – Kankalitala), Tarakeswar, Pathar Chapri - Furfura
Sharif.

 Eco Adventure and Wild Life Tourism in North Bengal: Dooars and Darjeeling
Circuit.

 Sundarban Circuit: Gad Khali, Dhamakhali, Diamond Harbour, Henry Island,

Bakkhali, Jharkhali, Lothian Island.

 Heritage tourism along River Ganga: Chandannagar – Serampore – Bandel –

Bansberia – Nabadwip - Murshidabad.

 Rural Tourism: Kalna- Samudragrah – Phulia – Clusters in Purulia, Bankura,

Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri.

 Kolkata Circuit

TOURISM PRACTICES IN WEST BENGAL

Tourism is seen as an engine of development and as a catalyst to economic prosperity of a

country. Various stake-holding sectors like the airlines, railways, surface transport, cruises,
hotels, telecommunications, entertainment sector and also retail- shopping are getting
benefit through economic multiplier effect of Tourism. Apart from generating direct
employment its indirect effect ensures inclusive growth of the local community. According
the Government of India estimate every one crore rupees invested in Tourism creates 475
jobs are against 126 jobs from manufacturing sector. West Bengal has many more potential
for tourism activities like excellent hill destinations, National parks, wildlife sanctuaries,
Botanical Garden, monuments, beaches, temples and other religious centres, museums,
palaces etc. West Bengal is one of the cultural centres of India, so many more potential are
available for all types of tourism activities. Various types tourism are practiced in West
Bengal, like-

Religious Tourist Practice

West Bengal has many religious sites and pilgrimage places for different faiths. West
Bengal is a unique place of religious harmony providing a large number of pilgrim
destinations for almost all religious communities. Dakshineswar and Kalighat Temples in
Kolkata City, 108 Temple and Sarbamangala Temple in Burdwan Town in Burdwan district,
Tarakeswar Shiv Temple in Hooghly district, Pathar Chapuri, Tarama Temple at Tarapith in
Birbhum district; Furfura Sharif, Bandel Church in Hooghly district, Kolkata Church etc.
some famous mosques in Kolkata viz Tipu Sultan Mosque, Nakhoda Mosque etc. attract
both domestic and foreign tourist.

Cultural Tourist Practice

Ancient building, archaeological sites, places of historical significance and modern culture
are the part of the West Bengal a state. West Bengal with a strong history has a tradition of
art and crafts. Some of the many still survive in the living form. A number of museums
spread throughout the state like Victoria Memorial museum in Kolkata, Hazar Duari
Musume in Murshidabad are the repository of the rich heritage.
Forest and Wild Life Tourism Practice
The East Himalayan region of Darjeeling and the nearby hills mentioned above abound in a
variety of flora and fauna - from the alpine to the tropical, the dense natural forests and the
sanctuaries of the Dooars region provide home to a variety of .wild animals and birds; the
Sunderbans are world famous for the mangrove forests, the Royal Bengal Tigers, crocodiles
and birds; the western forest and hill tracts also abound in wild life.

Rural Tourism Practice

Dimensions of Rural Tourism in West Bengal

Rural Tourism in West Bengal has innumerable dimensions. The major potential forms are
listed here below. West Bengal is a unique destination in tourism map of India due to its
geographical diversity, historical and religious sites. West Bengal has variety of tourist
attractions ranging from hill stations and beach resorts to pristine cultural rural heritage.
Rural West Bengal’s vast and varied landscapes, invite all those who are passionate about
travel and willing to experience new people and places at a rural-side in a village
atmosphere. Most of the village of West Bengal has its own distinctive performing arts,
rituals, festivals and different styles of worshipping with their local deities. This destination
where the ancient past continues to shape a dynamic present also has many small villages
that are known for their charming heritage as well as the traditional arts as their attractions.

Rural Agri Tourism

Agri Tourism is a tourism activity to visit the farming methodology and to visit regional
farm products. Agriculture is not a business, but it is the true culture of India as well as West
Bengal. Each agriculture field adds to the attraction of the urban population. The essential
quality of a agritourism are connectivity, attractions, accommodation, outdoor recreational
activities entertainment programs, meals, safety and security, medical facilities and others.
Rural Heritage Tourism
A tourism activity to show case the heritage of the region through the production of
handicrafts items. The State has a rich history and heritage reminiscent of Hindu, Buddhist,
Muslim, Christian, Vaishnava and tribal cultures. Among the most famous heritage sites are
Kochbihar, Gosainmari and Jalpeshwar in the Dooars; Gaur, Adina and Pandua in
Maldah district; Lalbagh in Murshidabad district; Palashi, Krishnagar, Nabadwip and
Mayapur in Nadia district; Bardhaman and Kalna in Bardhaman district; Kamarpukur in
Hooghly district; the temple town of Vishnupur in Bakura district.

Rural Cultural Tourism

Culture is an experience. Local culture comprises more than just costumes and dancing.
These include food, architectural style, language, local arts and handicrafts and all that
constitutes a way of life. Tourism provides opportunity to revive dying arts, crafts and art
forms. The State has ever played a dominant role in the field of art and culture, giving birth to
a large number of movements in literature, painting, sculpture, and theatre, cinema as also in
politics, science and industry. Tagore's Shantiniketan is an epitome of art and culture and
Kolkata is rightly regarded as the cultural capital of India. West Bengal also offers exquisite
opportunities for conferences and conventions with city life, shopping, multiple cuisines and
amusement all over the State.

Rural Fairs and Festivals

Very common and famous village festival all over the state that is ‘Nabyanna’ is organised
on different dated of Bangla ‘Agrahayan’ month. Various types of cultural functions are also
organised with this programmes. The religious customs and also the festivals of villages
abide broadly busted with the people all around West Bengal. Most of the festivals are
celebrated to obtain the prosperity of the agricultural community. West Bengal is a land of
splendid fairs and festivals, the most well-known being the Durgapuja, Kalipuja,
Gangasagar Mela, Kenduli Mela, Rash Mela, Vasanta Utsav or Holi, Rathajatra, Christmas,
Id and Muharram. Besides these religious festivals, there are cultural and tourism
festivals, the most famous of them being Vishnupur Festival and Teesta-Ganga Festival.

Rural Folk Arts and Crafts

The folk arts and crafts of West Bengal reflect the socio-religious customs and practices of
rural people. Music and dance are the emotional offspring of the happy moments of rural
people. Any dance, ritual or festival of the people originally starts as a fertility rite and
sympathetic magic.

TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURES IN WEST BENGAL

Tourism Accommodation

West Bengal is the important state which offers cultural heritage value of West Bengal to
the tourist. Hospitality is an important sense of Bangalis. There are many more Hotels,
Resorts, Heritage places and all other accommodation sector serve the tourist both domestic
as well as international. Both government and private sectors accommodate the tourists.
Hospitality is one of the most valued traditions of Bangalis’ culture. The adage, "Atithi
Devo Bahava"- that is considering guest as a representative of God, is a part of the life of
Bangalis’. West Bengal is one of the states in India to successfully implement home stay
accommodation for guests or tourists. Some rural destinations offer home stay
accommodation for tourists. Home stay is the practice of welcoming guests in home and
offering them hospitality and food. The family members welcome and serve the guests with
warmth and love at heart. Therefore home stays give the tourists an atmosphere of home
away from home. The Home stays not only showcase the rural life but also the warmth and
care of the rural folks. Another high point of home stay in West Bengal is the traditional
West Bengal cuisine.
 TABLE 4.2 Accommodations in West Bengal
Sl. Total No. of Hotel/
Type of Accommodations
No. Accommodation Centres
1 WBTDCL 33
12 (North Bengal) +
2 WBFDCL
2 (South Bengal)
3 Youth Hostel 21
Govt. Accommodations in Darjeeling
4 13
Area (DGHC + Others)

Transportation
The following Transportation facilities are available in West Bengal.

 Air Connections: The Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport in Kolkata is an

international airport linking various global destinations by direct flights. There
are two domestic terminals i.e. Kolkata and Bagdogra. In addition, the
Coochbehar airport has recently been made operational. Kolkata airport is
connected with almost all the major cities in the country. Bagdogra airport,
located in North Bengal, has direct connections with Kolkata, New Delhi and
Guwahati. Currently, the Kolkata International Airport is being modernized with
an investment of US$ 30 million, which includes the development of a new
integrated cargo complex.
 Road Connections: The state is well served with a wide network of National and
State Highways. All tourist destinations are easily accessible by road. Motor
launches and mechanized boats take tourists to the Sunderbans and Sagar Island.
The total length of roads in West Bengal is over 92,023 km. West Bengal's road
density is 103.69 km per 100 sq km, higher than the national average of 74.7 km
per 100 sq km. The total length of National Highways passing through the state
is 2,393 km.
 Rail Connections: The total length of railway network in West Bengal is 3,681
km. of this; 1,700 km is an electrified track. Howrah, Chitpur (Kolkata) and
Sealdah in Kolkata and New Jalpaiguri are the major railway hubs of the state.
Several important super-fast trains connect these stations with almost all the
parts of the country including North-East. The state has an excellent railway
 network within the state connecting almost all important tourist destinations.

Port Infrastructure: The state of West Bengal has two modern ports –
Kolkata and Haldia which together handled 54.22 million tonnes of cargo in
2008-09. During 2008-09, Kolkata Port ranked ‘fifth’ amongst all Indian major
ports in terms of cargo handling. Currently both ports are being modernized and
upgraded to cope with the growth in cargo. An outlay of US$ 222.26 million has
been projected in the 11th Plan for Kolkata Port Trust. The outlay for Kolkata
Dock System is in tune of US$ 45.17 million and that of Haldia Dock Complex
is US$83.15 million.

Eco-Tourism Project by West Bengal Forest Development Corporation

Limited (WBFDCL).

The WBFDCL runs 20 eco-tourism resorts, 17 in North Bengal and 3 in South Bengal, in
the following districts:
 Darjeeling: Lepchajagat, Kalimpong, Lava, Lolegaon, Rangpo, Mongpong,
Gorubathan, Samsing, Suntlekhola, Jaldhaka and Paren.
 Jalpaiguri: Murti, Barodabri (Malungi), Rajabhatkhawa and Rangamati.
 Coochbehar: Rasikbil and Gosanimari.
 Purulia: Garhpanchkot and Duarsini.
 Bankura: Mukatmonipur.

The eco-tourism resorts at Lolegaon, Gorubathan, Samsing, Jaldhaka and Paren (all in
Darjeeling district) suffered heavy damages on 8.2.2011 during the political turmoil. The
eco-tourism resort at Duarsini (Purulia) has been lying defunct due to the Maoist problem in
the region. The resort at Gosanimari (Coochbehar) has been damaged due to a cyclone
while that at Rangpo (Darjeeling) was damaged in an earthquake during 2011-12. Action to
revive the defunct eco-resorts has been initiated. To make up for the eco-tourism capacity
thus lost, the WBFDCL has set up tented accommodation at Jaldhaka and Suntlekhola
(Kalimpong Division) and Rangamati (Buxa Tiger Reserve) during 2011-12 which are a hit
with the visitors. At present, only 14 Eco-resorts of the WBFDCL (North Bengal:12, South
Bengal:2) with 301 beds (North Bengal:229 beds, South Bengal:72 beds) are available for
tourists. The WBFDCL also runs a ropeway for tourists at Darjeeling in collaboration with
M/S Conveyor and Ropeway Services Private Limited. A Museum maintained by the NTFP
Division at Sukna near Siliguri is also a great attraction for the tourists. The WBFDCL
collaborated with the W.B. Tourism Development Corporation for preparing projects for
circuit tourism in Kalimpong (Darjeeling) and Ayodhya Pahar (Purulia) and rural tourism
in Purulia district during 2010-11. The WBFDCL has also undertaken a project for
promoting destination tourism in Buxa Tiger Reserve during 2011-12 with a financial
support of Rs. 2.44 Cr received from the Government of India through the Tourism
Department of Government of West Bengal. The WBFDCL has also experimented with
conducted tours in the Sundarbans during 2010-11 and 2011-12 with encouraging results.
The WBFDCL has also joined hands with 4 private resort-owners in North Bengal to cater
to the increasing demand from the tourists. The WBFDCL actively engages the members of
the FPCs and EDCs in running its resorts, particularly in arranging catering and transport
facilities for the tourists. They are employed as tourist-guides. In some resorts, the local
people organise cultural programme for the tourists. They also run small shops on the fringe
of the resorts and sell local handicrafts to the tourists as souvenirs. (Source: Website,
WBFDCL).

SEASONS TO VISIT WEST BENGAL

The best season to visit West Bengal is from October to December. Usually from June to
September there are heavy rains in the region. From January to May is generally climate is
dry and is a good season for visitors. The climate of the state is usually warm and the
temperature will vary from 25 to 42 degree Celsius. Humidity of the atmosphere also will be
high during this season.

WEST BENGAL TOURISM POLICY

Government Approaches for Tourism Development

Now the West Bengal state Government has identified some potential areas for undertaking
tourist promotion activities. The Department of Tourism and the State Tourism
Development Corporation will continue to expand their network of tourist facilities and
other tourism-related activities all over the state and even outside, primarily for the benefit
of the middle class and budget tourists. At the same time, the Department will play the role
of a facilitator or catalyst in respect of investment by the private sector. The State
Government will mostly confine its efforts to infrastructure development, publicity, and
dissemination of information and coordination of sectoral activities to create conditions
conducive to private sector investment in tourism.

Objectives of Tourism Policy

The basic objectives arc-
 To promote wholesome tourism, in keeping with the established value systems
and based on local art, traditions and culture and at the same time, strictly
adhering to the existing acts, rules and regulations relating to environmental
protection.
 To promote West Bengal as a desirable tourism destination as well as
investment destination.
 To create adequate employment opportunities for the people of the state and
augment the general revenue earnings.
 To improve the quality of life in general.
 To increase foreign exchange earnings of the country.
 To create infrastructure in the form of hotels, resorts etc. essentially to serve as
a base for promoting tourism in a planned manner and to support industries that
will come up in the state in near future.
The concepts and guidelines adopted by Government of India while drafting the 9th Five
Year Plan were home in mind while drafting the State Tourism Policy.
 Facilities specifically required for each tourist centre will be provided for
the benefit of the inbound tourists.
 To prepare a Master Plan for specific tourism areas, to identify the
deficiencies in infrastructure and suggest integrated intensive developmental
activities.
 To encourage private investments in tourism promotion and arrange to
channelize through a single window clearance.
 To aggressively campaign and publicise, any tourism product in other sate
and foreign travel parts
 To constitute Tourism Development Committee in all the districts and the
state headquarters.
  To propagate cultural tourism intensively by conducting various festivals.

Strategy for Tourism Development in West Bengal

To make a quantum leap in tourism and to win the great tourism race, the State Government
will concentrate on the following aspects:
 Improvement/standardization/diversification of the existing tourism products
and creation of new tourism products by opening up new tourist locations and
by adding attractive tourist items.
 Efficient marketing and publicity of such product.
 Perfecting the delivery systems through world-class human resource
development and application of modem information technology in tourism
industry.
 Drawing up and implementing tourism plans, policies and incentive schemes
to facilitate vastly increased flow of investment to tourism projects in the
state from private sector, both domestic and foreign.

Government Initiatives for Planned Development of Tourism in West

Bengal

At the initial stage, the Tourism Department gave thrust towards the development of
infrastructure i.e., construction of tourist lodges in the tourist spots of the State. Thereafter,
since early 1990's the State Government had taken several initiatives for planned
development of tourism in different areas of the state and accordingly Tourism Department
had engaged consultants from time to time for preparation of plans for sustainable tourism
development.

Government of West Bengal Tourism Policy 2016

The vision of the Policy is not only to capture a fair share, if not lion share, of Policy
domestic and international tourist footfall in the country but also to attain the status of being
the most preferred tourist destination in India. For that the three A’s on which tourism
stands namely – Accessibility, Amenities and Advertising are not only to be properly
addressed but a tourism enabling environment is to be created through active involvement
of community in general and tourism stakeholders in particulars, which will encourage
private players to invest in the sector. This will have a positive impact on tourist footfall,
which in turn will give a boost to tourism economy through generation of new livelihood
options and employment opportunities.

Action Plan on Tourism Policy

In order to achieve the prime objectives of-

 Capturing the fair share of domestic and international tourists and

 Taking a lead in sustainable development over the next five years, the
following plan of action may be adopted.

1. Capturing the Fair Share

 Tourist Arrival – To achieve a growth rate in excess of 10% year to year

over the next five years;
 Investment – To increase the availability of branded hotel accommodation
room in West Bengal to 10,000 by 2020. Also investment will be encouraged
in different segments of tourism like wellness tourism, adventure tourism,
rural tourism, medical tourism and emerging areas like MICE tourism.
 Identification of new tourist destinations – New destinations are to be
identified with backward and forward linkages and develop these into proper
tourism products.
 Marketing -Greater emphasis on brand building of West Bengal tourism with
the new logo and repositioning it effectively in the domestic and international
market through a 360 degree promotional campaign.
2. Lead in Sustainable Development

The Government of West Bengal will aim at making tourism more sustainable
and shall respect and abide by the basic tenets of Environment, Social and Economic
sustainability.

 Economic Sustainability – Various strategies will be adopted for optimal use

 of existing resources to achieve a responsible and beneficial balance in the
long term.
 Environment Sustainability- Emphasis will be on conservation and
management of natural resources. Actions are to be taken to minimize air, land
and water pollution and preserve bio-diversity and natural heritage through
aforestation and preventing indiscriminate felling of trees. Tourism
Department will promote eco friendly tourism activities in the state with the
support of tourism stakeholders and the local community.
 Social Sustainability – Tourism will be developed through community
engagement, generation of local livelihood options and by increasing the
quality of employment. Social sustainability is reflected in safety and
standards to be maintained around the tourism destinations.

Implementation of Policy

For proper implementation of the plan, emphasis should be on the following nine
strategic areas:

 Development of Primary Tourism Circuits through identification of new

destinations and backward and forward linkages with the well known hotspots.
 Development of Primary Tourism Products through infrastructural support,
branding, publicity and involvement of tourism stakeholders.
 Development of Tourism Infrastructure as well as basic infrastructure such as
roads, drinking water, power hygiene, transport and solid waste management
and accommodation facilities.
 Development of Annual Event Calendar as a medium to show case tourism
spot lights.
 Formulation of a separate policy for Home stays tourism, whereby tourists,
owners and the locals can be benefited.
 Identification of Incentives for attracting tourists.
 Promotion of West Bengal Tourism in the domestic and the international
market through a 360 degree media campaign.

 Development of MICE Industry Comprising Meeting, Incentives,

 Conventions and Exhibition commonly known as business tourism.
 Facilitation of PPP model for attracting investment in tourism sector.

Infrastructure Development
West Bengal, its natural diversity, rich heritage and culture, culinary variety and above all
the charm of Kolkata draws a substantial number of tourists throughout the year. However
accessibility and infrastructure sometimes tend to be major impediments for a hassle free
experience. To overcome this problem, focus will be on providing complete infrastructural
support at the 6 identified Primary Tourist Circuits.

 Road connectivity: Improved accessibility including last mile connectivity is a

pre- requisite for development of a tourist destination. This facilitates a hassle
free and smooth travel to the nearby tourist destinations during short holidays
and weekends. The Government shall, therefore ensure that 6 identified Primary
Tourist Circuits are easily accessible from the nearest airports and the railheads.
 Wayside amenities: To facilitate a smooth and hassle free journey by road,
wayside facilities will be developed along the major thoroughfares connecting
the important and most frequented tourist destinations of the state.
 Electricity: Uninterruptible power supply without any voltage dips is to be
ensured at the tourist destinations
 Waste Disposal System: Promotion of sustainable tourism implies existence of a
waste management infrastructure. Sustainable solid waste management principles
of equity, effectiveness and efficiency are to be put in practice. The hotel
managements of the tourist places are to be convinced about the improved solid
waste management to ensure cleanliness. Local authorities be it in rural or urban
areas have to play a key role in putting a sound and effective waste management
system in practice.
 Tourist Reception or Facilitation Centre: Initiative is to be taken to set up TRC or
TFC at important points of contact with the tourists like airports, major railway
stations and at some important tourist destinations. These centres will provide
tourism related information to the visitors.

Annual Event Calendar

The Department will develop an annual calendar as a medium to showcase Calendar

activities that can result in increased tourist footfall in the state. The following Annual
events will be highlighted and promoted in the domestic and the International circuit.

 IPL – IPL is a yearly pan Indian cricket tournament and Kolkata Knight Riders,
associated with the city of Kolkata, can act as the focal point over which tourism
can be promoted. Tourism Department can utilize the brand of KKR to
popularize Kolkata as a tourist destination.

 ISL – The state has recently entered the Indian Super League with its very own
team which is ‘Atletico De Kolkata’. Similar to the IPL, the ISL can be used as a
platform to highlight the city of Kolkata, which is known the world over for its
passion for football.
 Durga Puja – A major event that is synonymous with Bengal, Durga Puja has a
strong cultural appeal and evokes nostalgia among the Bengali NRI’s. The
festival has immense tourism potential is to be promoted as the must visit festival
during autumn.
 Kolkata Christmas Festival on Park Street – An annual event held during the last
two weeks of December at Park Street and Allen Park has the potential to emerge
as the winter carnival with music, food, and lights. Focus would be on to
braodbase the festival through forward and backward integration with the other
tourism stakeholders like aviation industry, hotel industry and travel or tour
industry.
 Ganga Sagar Mela – Considered the next biggest religious mela after Kumbh,
this festival draws large number of pilgrims from across the country in the
second week of January, during ‘Makar Sankranti’. It will be the endeavour of
the Government to promote Gangasagar mela by devising attractive packages
and also promote Sagar Island as a beach destination for year round visit.
 Any other stand alone event that may be developed in consultation with the
tourism stakeholders and marketed efficiently, keeping in consideration the
cultural traditions of the state and emerging trends in the tourism industry.

Home Stay Tourism

The concept of Home stay tourism is gradually becoming popular among the tourists, who
want to have an authentic experience of local culture, cuisine and hospitality. Defined as
tourism where the tourist stays at the homes of the locals, it allows the traveler not just to
see the destination but to actually feel and live it. Homestays involve relationships between
the tourists and the owner of the house, which both of them cherish. For conservation of
natural resources and environment, maintenance of heritage structures and monuments and
to ensure safety and security of the tourists and delivery of quality services, certain
regulations and guidelines should be in place. An unregulated homestay operation can lead
to security, quality and pricing issues for the end users which can have severe negative
repercussions for all Homestay operators and also the state of West Bengal. The Tourism
Department shall therefore, formulate a comprehensive Home Stay policy taking all the
aspects of ownership, scale, size, registration, promotion and booking facility etc.

Incentives Schemes to Tourism Units 2015

West Bengal Tourism Department has incorporated few changes to the existing West
Bengal Incentive Scheme, 2008, keeping in consideration the changing scenario of the
tourism sector and the new scheme West Bengal Incentive scheme, 2015 has come into
force from 7th January, 2015.

Eligible Tourism Project or Units for the Tourism Scheme: The following Tourism
projects should be eligible for incentives under the policy provided they have not applied or
taken the benefit of similar incentives under any other policy or scheme of the
Government of West Bengal:

 Hotels of star categories

 Hotels graded by State Government
 Heritage Hotels, Resorts, Health Farms and Health and Wellness spa
 Wayside and public amenities at tourist sites
 Theme based Entertainment centre, Amusement Park, Aquarium, Aqua Park
 Art and Craft Villages, Craft and souvenir shops at tourist sites excluding
manufacturing, development of souvenirs and artisan bubs
 Golf Courses
 Camping, Caravan, Tents and other temporary accommodation facilities
developed for tourism purposes
  Aerial Ropeways
 Convention Centres
 Adventure Tourism Projects
 Cruise Boats, Houseboats
 Eco-Tourism Projects
 Wildlife Safari
 Other Projects approved by the Department of Tourism, Government of
West Bengal or Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

Availability of Land: Land is one of the most critical inputs for setting up tourism projects.
Tourism Department will, in consultation with the Land, Land Revenue Department, the
Urban Development Department and the district authorities, identify and earmark lands that
can be made available for tourism-related projects.

Single Window System for Permission: In order to expedite implementation of tourism

projects and to ensure speedy grant of permissions and clearances, one inter- departmental
Secretaries Committees will be set up depending on the nature of the different projects.

Incentives to the Tourism Stakeholders

Department of Tourism after holding a series of meeting with the tourism Stakeholders like
tour and travel associations, hotelier associations have Identified the following areas where
incentivisation is required to draw more tourists to this state:

1. Marketing support to recognized service providers to the tourists

2. Brochure support for publicity and dissemination of information
3. Organization of FAM trips involving both reputed domestic and international
tour operators, travel writers, media personnel.

Showcasing the Tourism Potential

The immense tourism potential of the state needs to properly showcase in the domestic and
the international market through an effective communication plan and by using all the
available media platforms. In 2015, West Bengal Tourism has undergone a makeover with
launching of the new logo and tagline: “Experience Bengal – the sweetest part of India”.
This logo is completely creative and being prepared for a 360 degree advertising in TV, FM,
Print, Outdoor and digital medium for branding and repositioning of West Bengal tourism in
the domestic and the international market.

The task before the Department would be to:

 Undertake a market research to understand the perception of the prospective

tourists on the tourism potential of West Bengal and the necessary
interventions needed to improve it.
 Identify the right market segment and the target group.
 Evolve an effective campaign strategy for direct communication with the
target group.
 Take up a 360 degree promotional campaign through all the mediums.
 Undertake an evaluation programme to assess the impact of the campaign after
it is over.
 Effectively use the social media by making it more responsive and interactive
 Put more emphasis on promotion through digital platform through constant
updating of the departmental website by making it more user friendly and
posting new contents, photographs, latest updates etc.
 Develop a mobile app with interactive features to stay tuned to the changing
technology and to respond to the growing demand of the new generation of
tourists.
 Participate in all major international and domestic trade and travel events to
increase the visibility of West Bengal
 Coordinate with the tourism stakeholders like hoteliers, tour operators and the
transportation sector for better integration of services and facilities
 Disseminate tourism related information through the Embassies and High
Commissions of the countries which have their offices in the state.
Development of Human Resources in Tourism and Hospitality

There is very noticeable gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower in tourism
sector. To bridge the gap, training programme under Hunar Se Rozgar Tak will be
conducted in phases. There is a strong need for creating awareness among the people
regarding the employment prospects in travel tourism and hospitality sector. The
Department will focus on capacity building of the taxi or auto drivers in association with
Transport department Kolkata and West Bengal Police and different industry associations.
Good quality trained guides, well conversant in English and other foreign languages besides
Bengali and Nepali are an essential component of tourism. The Department will carry out
training programmes for guides in association with the tourism stakeholders by maintaining
a certain standard.

Integration of Technical Institutes with Tourism

Vocational training providers and industrial training institute are offering skill based courses
in identified trades. These institutes will be encouraged to offer more tourism related
courses, like Front Office, Food and Beverages, Housekeeping etc. The Tourism
Department will work closely with the Technical Education Department in this regard. The
Government institutes and aided private institutes offering tourism courses will be
encouraged to offer skill oriented courses in tourism to unemployed youths by tapping funds
from local self governments and departments like BCW and Youth Welfare etc. There is a
significant potential for inbound tourism from China with the introduction of the direct daily
flight from Kunming to Kolkata. The opportunity can be fully utilized if there is adequate
number of Chinese speaking guides. To address this issue, department will organize and
support short term Chinese language courses for creation of a pool of Chinese speaking
guides in association with the tourism stakeholders.

Initiatives for Development of Tea Tourism

The government of West Bengal felt that the promotion of tea tourism will promote tourism,
allow the tea gardens to diversify, generate local employment and augment local income.
The term “tea tourism” will broadly include the overall experience of tourists in the midst of
a tea garden or estate, staying in a heritage bungalow, at a home-stay feeling in a tea-village
or in a modern resort. Trekking in the natural beauty of a lush tea garden, undertaking a tea-
testing session, visiting a modern tea factory and even trying one’s hand at plucking tea
leaves are all within the idea of “tea tourism”. Other activities may include trekking along
nature trails, witnessing local culture and patronizing local artisans.

CHAPTER III
PROBLEM, METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE

INTRODUCTION
Humans are the most intellectual, creative, and inquisitive beings of the earth and they
evolved as time moved, for their better standards of living, life style which involved the
basics necessities of life, knowledge of nature, business and profession. For the
betterment of everything continuous refinement and creation of an input of new knowledge
is required which will be done by continuous research only. Research is the need for
progress, betterment and excellence. Kothari (1997). reveals that research in common
parlance refers to a search for knowledge which is in fact an art of scientific investigation.
According to the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1952), meaning of
research “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any
branch of knowledge.”

To resolve the research problem the proper planning and execution is necessary. As per
Michael (1997), a research design is powerful scheme of action proposed to be carried out in
a sequences during the process of research focusing on the problem to be tackled, fixing the
method of investigation and formulation of hypothesis. Kandari (1985), The incredible
progress in the field of Industry and other productive activities directly lead to economic and
social progress, higher real income, longer leisure times, and increasingly cheaper and
varied tourist plan facilities. The spread of education has created cultural awareness and
has stimulated desire to travel as noted by Lickorish (1982), Tourism industry is the 3rd
largest industry of the world and has a tremendous potential for the growth and
development. West Bengal being a well-developed agricultural state, tourism has got the
least importance by the citizens and the government. The state concentrates more towards
agricultural growth only. Blessed with large natural, land, culture and heritage diversity,
West Bengal has tremendous potential in the rural tourism sector which is yet not explored
in satisfactory level. The smaller states like Kerala have taken a leap in this industry which
should be taken as an example by the West Bengal Tourism stakeholders to take steps in
further exploring its potential.

TITLE OF THE RESEARCH

“A Study on Rural Tourism Marketing in West Bengal”

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Rural Tourism in West Bengal has a tremendous potential if marketed well. West
Bengal has immense rural tourist potential, some of which is currently underutilized or
unutilised. The number of tourist visiting West Bengal’s rural destinations is not up to the
mark. The Research problem of this study is to make an assessment of the potentials of rural
tourism and to formulate effective framework for the practice of rural tourism in West
Bengal by using the rural uniqueness of rural tourist destinations and offer solutions to
the identified problems so as to make rural tourism at West Bengal a grand success. India
has great potential to capitalize the opportunities offered by the tourism industry by virtue of
its rich cultural heritage and natural endowments in terms of flora and fauna. West Bengal
has a rich and vast rural tourism potential. The ancient temples with dense large towers,
architectural monuments, rivers, palaces, forests, wild life sanctuaries, hill stations, and long
beaches adorn the state with their panoramic landscape.
Tourism plays a pivotal role in the rapid growth of national and international economy.
Rural tourism is an important means of promoting cultural exchange, international
understanding and co-operation. Tourism aims at achieving an equitable balance between
major industrial areas and the rest of the country. Tourism is the world's largest and fastest
growing industry. As more and more economies are relying on tourism as one of their
growing sectors, tourism industry is receiving its recognition and importance. The tourism
industry is highly employment based and can earn significant revenues including foreign
exchange. It offers immense socio economic development potential. It generates high levels
of economic output, with minimum capital investments.

Tourism is a global phenomenon with great prospects and promise for economic
development, employment generation, and infrastructure creation and so on. Tourism
industry contributes a sizable income to the national exchequer by way of foreign exchange
and domestic sales and services. The economy of many countries thrives more on the
income from tourism industry. The snow clapped mountain ranges, deep rivers, monuments,
architectural wonders, pilgrim centres, bays and beaches and the like are not simply the
objects we perceive, but potential sources of income and employment.

West Bengal is used as an entry and exit point to many destinations of others states. Most of
the international tourists here were mostly one to two night stay tourist. Thus, Tourism
Industry is one of the important sources of generating employment for local youth, wherein
the services of locals can be utilized for tourists via many ways like souvenir shops,
restaurants, fast food corners, etc. This will encourage local entrepreneurs to start business
related to tourism. In short, the vast scope in West Bengal tourism is untapped and not
marketed well to benefit the stakeholders of rural tourism industry in West Bengal. Hence,
the research problem studied in this work is to test that if marketed well West Bengal Rural
Tourism has tremendous potential. For any product or service to be sold, it is very important
to market the service/product well. More important is how the service is advertised and
marketed. With regard to Rural Tourism Development in West Bengal, it is observed that
often there is no information available or no signboards on highway to promote the nearby
tourist destination in West Bengal.

Tourism requires specialized functionaries. Tourism includes transportation, boarding,

lodging, entertainment, shopping, banking and safety atmosphere. Whenever the rural
tourists are satisfied with these facilities they will be happy and their visits will be frequent.
Their satisfaction will do word of mouth promotion of rural tourism industry in West
Bengal. Infrastructure facility such as roads, reasonably good accommodation, clean toilets,
garbage collection centre, easily accessible booking facilities, wide road and parking
facilities should be on top priority. This study covers the position of such infrastructure
facilities available in West Bengal and their quality as compared to national scenario.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Following are the specific objectives of the study:

 To study the market potentiality of rural tourism in West Bengal.

 To study the present contributions and their problems of tourism industry

in West Bengal.

 To make analysis of considerable impacts of the rural tourism industry in the

socio-economic development in West Bengal.

 To interpret suitable strategies and guidance to design the action plan for
developing the existing and non-existing tourism destinations in West Bengal
from marketing management prospective.

 To make an attempt to position of West Bengal as a unique tourism

destination in India and south Asia.

 To think the alternative approaches on the promotion and marketing of the

tourism products of the rural areas.
NEEDS AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The researcher, through the attempt has found that there is a significant shift among the
motivations of tourists towards tourism in West Bengal especially to rural destinations. The
shift is primarily towards the latest trends of Tourism say Eco- Tourism and Rural Tourism.
Hence, West Bengal, the epitome of Historical Tourism in India, was found to be apt to
introduce with Rural Tourism as rural destinations are also known as the new tourist
attractions of India because of the new tourism taste in the entire rural West Bengal. Thus,
to promote and project West Bengal as one of the best tourist destinations in India and for
this perspective this study was carried out.

The study is confined to tourism development especially the trends of Tourism in West
Bengal namely Rural Tourism. The common approach to tourism development in West
Bengal has been religion, history, hill station, rural attractions and culture. Hence, this study,
latching onto the present tourism trend of the world, aims to open-up newer frontiers for
Tourism Development. There are many scope and avenues for development of the rural
tourism and ultimately development of the socio-economical conditions of the rural people.

PERIOD OF THE STUDY

The period of study for this research has been 2008-2017. Only during this time the span of
rural tourism gained prominence. The primary data of the study were collected during 2014
- 2016. Secondary data required for the study were collected from the official records of the
offices of the Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal and the Ministry of
Tourism, Government of India for a period of 15 years from 2002 to 2016 and from various
government web sites, journals etc.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

In this research, the limitations of the study are as follows-
 The domestic tourists hesitate to provide their profile and responses. The
researcher had to convince them.
 Most of the people related with rural tourism business are not well educated
so they hesitate to provide tourism related information.
  The awareness on rural tourism is below the regular standard.
 The financial requirements for the study have a limitation to some extent for
the researcher.
 The literary resources were needed to be formulated out of tourism and
rural potential of the destination.
 The beneficiaries of the rural tourism are new and hence the data have not
been tabulated at their end.

TYPES OF RESEARCH
Empirical Research
The researcher has used descriptive research approach for this study. Questionnaires and
interviews schedules were used to collect the primary data from the tourists and
stakeholders of the Tourism Industry.

 Descriptive Research: The researcher has used questionnaires and interview

schedules to collect primary data from the stakeholders in Tourism Industry
and allied services that attract tourists towards the Tourist Canters in West
Bengal. To find and analyze the various attributes and factors that attracts
tourists to West Bengal.

 Analytical Research: The researcher has analysed the collected data

statistically and logically to arrive at expected inferences for devising
marketing strategies to promote West Bengal tourism in general and rural
tourism in particular. The study is aimed to identify the factors commonly
associated with West Bengal tourism, gauge the present tourism scenario and
bottlenecks to suggest suitable marketing strategies for development of West
Bengal tourism.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study taken up is empirical in nature. The required primary data were collected from
the tourist respondents and people are related with tourism directly by the researcher. The
data were collected with the help of an interview schedule specially designed and prepared
for the study, a copy of which is appended in Appendix. Secondary data have been collected
from the official records of the Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal and
India and various government web sites.

Research Design
A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a
manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.
It constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. The method
of collecting data for this study was both primary data and secondary. Framing
questionnaires directly to the national and international tourists, the data was collected from
the respondents and the collected data was pre-tested for technical aspects to make to
strengthen the questionnaire. The samples from tourists were collected, rural West Bengal as
the place attract most of the tourists. Opinion survey was collected directly through the
interaction with the both national and international tourists in the rural tourist destinations.
The questionnaires were based on the ideas and the objectives of the study. These were
structured on the specified problems that were given. The focus of the questionnaires was
the basic potential of rural tourism available in West Bengal. Moreover, there were
questions that focused and how they experiencing the rural tourism activities in West
Bengal.

Sources of Data

The researcher has collected the secondary data 102 from magazines, journals, reports,
Government policies for Tourism and from National News papers like the Financial
Express, Indian Experience and some data collected from Tourist office, central and
state governments’ websites. Information relating to the attitude, impression,
behaviour, expectation and satisfaction of tourists has been gathered from the primary
survey report as primary data103 based on 200 samples. 20 sample respondents from
foreign tourists and 180 samples from domestic tourists, those have come for visit to
West Bengal. Further, to study the opinion on rural tourist destinations, rural tourism
activities, region and type of accommodation and infrastructure needed in
different regions in the district have been included in the primary data. Following five
villages in West Bengal have been selected for development as rural tourism
destinations by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India as rural tourism
 projects. And the researcher has collected the primary data from those rural tourists’
destinations for the research.

1. Ballabhpur Danga, Distt. Birbhum (USP : Folk Dance)

2. Sonada Village, Distt. Darjeeling (USP : Heritage)
3. Mukutmonipur, Distt. Bankura (USP : Sari weaving)
4. Village Antpur, Distt. Hoogly (USP : Sari weaving)
5. Village Kamarpukur, Distt. Hoogly (USP : Spiritual & Craft)
(Source : Website of The Ministry of Tourism, Government of
India)

Field Work and Collection of Data

For collection of primary data from the sample tourists, an interview schedule was adopted.
The tourists were interviewed by the researcher generally during their leisure time, with the
help of the interview schedule. In this research, the primary data are collected by the popular
enquiry method of questionnaire. A close rapport was created by the researcher with self
introduction. The interview was quite informal and was in a conversational style. The
interview schedule was administered to the tourists and the data were recorded by the
researcher in the schedule. In this method a questionnaire is sent to the persons concerned
with a request to answer questions in the questionnaire. After completion of each interview,
a check-up of the data was made to ensure completeness and accuracy. Each interview took
about two to two and a half hours on an average. The researcher utilizes the secondary data
both published and unpublished data. The published data include various publications of the
central, state and local governments and international bodies, technical and trade journals,
books, magazines and newspapers, reports and publications of various associations, reports
prepared by research scholars of universities, public record and statistics, historical
documents and other sources of published information. The unpublished data are the thesis
and reports of scholars and researchers.

Following instruments were used for collection of secondary and primary data required for
this research:
 Library work for review of related literature and references from data sources,
research’s and government reports,
 Well structured Questionnaires for tourists, Travel Agents/Tour operators and
 Hotels and Resorts.
 Structured Interview Schedules for Officers of WBTDC, Department of
Tourism, Government of West Bengal, Ministry of Tourism government of
India and one Senior Tour Operator.
Sampling Method

Sampling is the process of selecting of samples from a particular universe. Since the
population of the respondents is quite large, a representative sample of each of the
respondents has been selected by simple random sampling method so that each unit in
the universe had an equal opportunity of being selected. This sample is thus free from
bias. A survey was conducted among the tourists for the purpose of this study. The
samples among the tourists were selected both from foreign and from domestic
tourists. The weight age among the foreign and domestic tourist was fixed as 10:90
because from the tourist statistics of rural tourists of West Bengal. This framework
amounts to 20 foreign and 180 domestic respondents. In West Bengal there are 23
districts of which many districts are recognized as those with tourist importance. In
these districts, there is at least one place which attracts domestic as well as
foreign tourists. The place of interest ranges from pilgrimage centre to place of
historical importance. Among various tourist spots, it was advised to give due weight
age to places where people with different aspirations conglomerate, adjoining
districts having places of archaeological, pilgrimage and entertainments may also be
considered. The state, West Bengal located in the Eastern part of India was found
suitable for this purpose and hence this state has been selected as the study area. Since
every year around fourteen lakhs foreign and seven crores domestics tourists are
visiting various places of West Bengal, the researcher consulted the office of the
Department of Tourism, West Bengal, before finalizing the number of sample
respondents. A reasonable sample of 200 respondents would be ideal for any social
science research. Therefore it was decided to collect data from 200 respondents, but it
was done from 225 tourists at the selected spots. Every tourist is likely to visit many
areas at a given period of time, stratification of area and respondents appear to be
superfluous and hence purposive sampling technique was adopted for selection of
respondents. Since the data collected from 25 respondents were found to be
inadequate and incomplete, they were rejected. So the sample size was fixed to be 200
respondents.
CHAPTER SCHEME
The research work has been designed to have the following chapters.

CHAPTER I -Introduction to the Scenario of Rural Tourism in West

Bengal
In this chapter the existing and tourism potentials specially the Rural Tourism of India as
well as West Bengal have been discussed.

CHAPTER II- Problem, Methodology and Procedure

In this chapter the Problem, Methodology and Procedure of the study are discussed.

CHAPTER III- Marketing and Promotion of Rural Tourism

Various marketing aspect and related promotional tools for the rural tourism in West
Bengal are discussed in this chapter.

CHAPTER IV- Analysis and Findings

In this chapter the data is analysed the findings from the analysis are discussed

CHAPTER-VIII- Suggestions and Conclusion

Final conclusion all over the study and recommendations on the study are given in this
chapter.

CHAPTER IV

MARKETING AND PROMOTION OF RURAL TOURISM

TOURISM PLANNING
Tourism planning can be viewed either as a process or as an activity. Dredge and Moore
(1992) define tourism planning as an activity developed for the benefits of local residents
and outside visitors. Backman, Uysal, and Backman (1991) argue that tourism planning
is an activity which necessitates the appraisal of current and future resources for tourism
development in a given area. West Bengal tourism faces a dichotomies situation - the type
of tourists Bengal really wants, it receives in small number, and the tourists Bengal actually
receives, it does not want. This situation, which is faced not only by Bengal but also by
other states in India, who are working towards developing their tourism marketing, raises
questions about tourism development planning. Basically, there are three possible
directions that tourism planners can follow:
 Emphasize individual tourism - (EIT) provides facilities and makes attempts to
gradually change the certain images of tourist destination of West Bengal of
different tourist destinations.
 Concentrate on Mass tourism, Showing the uniqueness of Bengal tourism
resources to attract both domestic and as well as international tourist; provide
incentive, to international tour operators; invest in advertising to change the
image of Kolkata, Digha, Darjeeling, Sundarban, Build a luxury infrastructure
to accommodate the needs of the mass tourism and also for the budget category
tourist.
 Emphasize youth market, attempts to provide the basic facilities at reasonable
prize. Change the nature of package tourism, make the circuit like golden
triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, all are located in three different state; have to
focus group tours towards certain themes - e.g., religious tour (to target the
Bangladesh tourist and Mayanmar tourist); educational tour; Himalayan safari,
Museums tour Archaeological and historical tours; Wildlife tours, tribal tours;
Rural tour package etc.

Tourism is a rather an activity that overlaps several different sectors of the society and
economy. Without planning, it may create unexpected and negative impacts. Tourism is
also still a relatively new type industry in the state of West Bengal.Some state
government and often the private sectors have little or no experience in how to develop
tourism properly.
Firstly tourism should be planned at the national and regional levels. At these levels,
planning is concerned with tourist development policies, structure plans, facility standards,
institutional factor, and all the other elements necessary to develop and manage tourism.
And then, within the frame work of national and regional planning, more details plans for
tourist attraction, resorts, urban, rural and others forms of tourism development can be
prepared.

Tourist Supply and its Elements

Tourism planning integrates all components of supply and their interaction. These
components represent the drawing forces generating tourist demand. Lodging and other
service facilities function as supporting units and should not be considered as prime
motivations to travel. Tourism supply is comprised of attractions, transportation,
accommodation, other support services, and infrastructure.

i) Attractions:
This is an indispensable ingredient of tourism supply. In fact, all the other
components of supply depend upon major tourist attractions. Attractions may be
classified by ownership: nonprofits organizations, private businesses, and
government agencies. Another classification is defined by the tourists' length of stay:
the Blue Ridge Parkway, a zoo, or an historic site is touring attractions whereas
convention centres, beach resorts, or "Club Med" vacation villages are destination
attractions. The most widely used classification related to tourism attractions is based
on the resource foundation criteria.

ii) Transportation:
This component of supply is critical in predicting tourism trends and development of
tourism destinations. In the post World War II era mass tourism depended on the
development of a railway network. Most early tourist attractions, amusement parks,
beach resorts, and spas, were located in the areas surrounding railway stations. The
post World War II rise in automobile travel and the most recent increase in air
transportation have heavily affected the patterns of tourism flows as well as
destinations planning and development.

iii) Accommodation:
Pearce (1981) classified accommodations in three major components. The
commercial sectors, which is mostly represented by hotels, motels, and vacation
villages. There is also the private sector, which includes second homes, time-sharing
properties, and residential buildings used to host family members and friends. Last,
there is a hybrid classification, defined by camping and caravanning activities, where
private tents and campers or caravans are situated in areas- campsites- managed by
business firms.
 iv) Other Support Services:
Tourists need not only a place to sleep but also a wide range of services that ensure a
pleasant stay. These services have been classified by Defert (1967) as:
basic(groceries), trade (communications), comfort (clothing), security (health care),
and luxury (jewellery).

v) Infrastructure:
The tourism phenomenon relies heavily on public utilities and infrastructural support.
Without roads, airports, harbours, electricity, sewage, and potable water tourism
planning and development would not be possible. Generally, infrastructures
developed only for residents need to be expanded to serve travellers. From a
profitability perspective, infrastructure differs from attractions, transportation, and
accommodation because it does not generate revenues directly. In literature, the
constructs of "attraction" and that of "resource" have been loosely interpreted and
used interchangeably.

Tourism Marketing Concept

Marketing gives importance to customer satisfaction. It is a combination of activities to
motivate people to buy the product. It is nothing but actually shopping which is deeply
associated by selling and buying products and services. Travel and tourism is no different
where the word marketing as used by many, is restricted to negotiations and publicity.
Many large Tourism organization adopted marketing as a business strategy.

Marketing is more emphasis on quality product and professionalism with proper

aggression. Marketing always focuses around the satisfaction of customer needs, wants,
and requirements. It expects to identify the future needs. Tourism is a service industry;
these services are intangible which can be known only after the actual experience, so it
carries an amount of risk to purchase. There has been an up market trend in tourism over
the last few decades. Tourists have high levels of disposable income, considerable leisure
time, are well educated, and have sophisticated tastes. There is now a demand for better
quality products, which has resulted in a fragmenting of the mass market for beach
vacations; people want more specialized versions, quieter resorts, family-oriented holidays
or niche market-targeted destination hotels and there is a much awaited need for
developing full proof marketing plan for the same.

Therefore a marketing plan contains number of aspects of integrated, viable and strategic
plan, which is known as marketing mix. Marketing mix, as stated, is a right combination of
elements designed to get a particular set of consumer, buy a product at a particular price.
However, the state West Bengal tourism sector is facing challenges such as lack of
good quality tourism infrastructure, global concerns regarding health and safety of tourists,
disparate passenger or road tax structures across various states and shortfall of adequately
trained and skilled manpower. While several plans and programmes have already been
devised for tackling these challenges, successful implementation would be critical to
accelerate growth. Besides this it is a well-known fact that the complete potential of the
West Bengal tourism has not been explored yet. Since tourism is a multidimensional
activity which is principally a service industry. The wholesome participation of all
departments of the Central and State governments, private sector and voluntary
organizations, NGO’s will help to attain sustainable growth in tourism.

TOURISM DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

According to Cooper et al (1998), the tourist area life cycle (TALC), states that
destinations go through a cycle of evolution similar to the life cycle of a product (se
fig). In the model, numbers of visitors replace sales of the product. The shape of the TALC
curve varies as it is dependent on factors such as the rate of employment, access,
government policy, market trends and competing destinations (ibid). TALC includes seven
stages: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, decline or
rejuvenation that the authors define by adapting Butler (1980) and Cooper (1997).

Exploration
In exploration stage the destination is visited by a small volume of explorer-type tourists.
The natural attractions, scale and culture are the main factors drawing to the destinations.
The volume of visitors is constrained by lack of access and facilities. In this stage, the
attractions of the destination remain unchanged by tourism. Contact with local people is
considered to be high (ibid).

Involvement
At the involvement stage, local communities have to decide whether they are willing to
support tourism, and if so, the type and scale of tourism they have a preference on.
Advertising, for example conducted by local initiatives, may lead to an increased and
regular volume of visitors. As the tourism market area emerges, it creates pressure to public
sector to provide, for example, infrastructure. It is important to establish appropriate
organization and decision making process for tourism, and ensure locally determined
capacity limits as well as sustainable principles (ibid).

Development
In this stage, large numbers of visitors are attracted: the number of visitors at peak periods
perhaps equal or exceed the number of local inhabitants. The control of the development
may pass out of local hands, which can lead to changes in the organization of tourism.
Companies from outside the destination move in and start providing products and
facilities. Problems may occur if local decision-taking structure is weak. Sustainable
development is one example that the new entrants and local community may have
differing views about. In this stage, regional and national planning may take place and
marketing is started in order to draw international tourist. Overuse and deterioration may
occur in this stage (ibid).

Consolidation
In this stage, the rate of increase of visitors declines. However, the total number of visitors
is still increasing and exceeds permanent residents. The resort is now a fully fledged part of
the tourism industry and has an identifiable recreational business region (ibid).

Stagnation
In this stage peak tourist volumes have now been reached. The destination is no longer
fashionable and relies upon visits from more conservative travellers. Major promotional
and development efforts are needed in order to maintain the number of visits.
Environmental, social and economic problems are typical for a destination in this stage,
and competition is fierce (ibid).
Decline or Rejuvenation
After stagnation the destination either declines or rejuvenates. According to Cooper et al
(1998, p.116), in the decline stage visitors are being lost to newer resorts, and a smaller
geographical catchment for day trips and weekend visits is common whereas in the
rejuvenation stage destination managers have a choice to rejuvenate or re-launch the
destination by looking at new markets or developing the product. A destination should try
to protect its traditional markets, but also try to establish new markets and products such
as business, conference or special interest tourism. This helps to stabilize visitation and
overcome the seasonality related issues (ibid).

MARKETING APPROACH TO TOURISM

According to William J. Stanton, 'marketing is a total system of interacting business

activities designed to plan, place, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying products
and services to present and potential customers. This definition honours customer needs
and desires. It emphasizes the need for marketing programme covering all aspects of a
good marketing mix. The American Marketing Association is more concise in defining
marketing as 'the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and
service from producer to customer'. This definition is open to a variety of interpretations,
depending upon the perception of the exponents. In reality, the marketing job of banks
today is somewhat wider than what is perceived in the definition. According to Kotler, a
marketing concept means that 'a management orientation that holds the key task of the
organization is to determine the needs and wants of target markets and to adopt the
organization to delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than its
competitors. Without going into the details of the ways by which it is looked at, the concept
may be considered for our purpose from the enterprise orientation to the satisfaction of the
needs of the customers. For tourism industry, the concept implies a corporate philosophy
which recognizes that the Department of Tourism should provide their customers with the
services they want and need. In tourism the market consists of heterogeneous consumers.
In this situation, the industry cannot appeal to all consumers in the same way. The
consumers must be accessed with distinct services according to their needs and
preferences. For this purpose, the department must resort to marketing strategy planning to
attain the objectives of business. The marketing strategy must consist a specific strategy
bearing on target market, marketing mix and marketing expenditure level. Under target
marketing, the department (the service provider) must distinguish between market
segments, select one or more segments and develop services and marketing mix tailored to
each segment. The target marketing calls for three major steps.
 Market segmentation
 Market targeting
 Market positioning

Segmentation of Tourism Market

Market segmentation is the process of dividing the total heterogeneous market for a
product or service into several markets or segments, each of which tends to be
homogeneous in all significant aspects. Traditionally, segmentation was based on
demographic characteristics, later on other variables were used, e.g. geographic,
psychographic, and behaviouristic variables. For example, focuses on expenditure-levels
in terms of consumers’ estimation of travel expenditures; Grazin and Olsen (1997)
identify groups depending on their frequency of use with regard to fast food restaurants;
Nayga and Capps (1994) relate demand for different types of restaurants to different
socio-economic segments; and Binckley (1998) shows that population density has a
powerful effect on demand

Travel and tourism markets are changing. Socio-demographic changes marked by an

active aging population, two-income families, childless couples, and a rising population of
single adults have led to substantial changes in travel and lei-sure demand and in patterns
of travel markets. Various studies have dealt with tourist motivations and market
segmentation. Factors that motivate tourists for leisure travel are classified into two types,
i.e. “push” and “pull” factors. An analysis on tourist motivation and activities is important
for destinations to understand leisure tourist destination choice it can also enhance
destination image and its interplay with tourist satisfaction and loyalty The analysis of
tourist motivation can focus on one destination; or it can be conducted by a comparative
study by nationality and destination. The motivation study can also focus on one type of
target group such as on senior travellers and on backpackers. There are a number of articles
dealing with tourism motivation, tourist perception and market positioning, have
recognized the relationship among the tourism motivation, tourist perception and market
positioning.

The segmentation is the crucial part of the marketing which divides the prospective
markets in to several groups in terms of homogeneous characteristics. Though the
consumers are different with their different need sets the marketing approach should be
different for different group. In the field of tourism it has been observed tourists are
different and they are having different set of needs. Some people are having inclination
towards spiritual and holiness they will prefer spiritual tourism. Some tourist likes fun and
food they may prefer festival and event tourism. Some are very much motivated with
historical monuments and places they may prefer historical tourism. So the segmentation
principle is also applied for tourism marketing. The specific tourism destination is catering
to the certain target group. In promoting that tourism destination marketing communication
must hit the proper segment. In doing the segmentation better, the tourist data has to be
properly analysed to get the in-depth idea about the target group. There are several factors
which are involved in analysing tourism segmentation those are geographic, demographic,
behavioural pattern of the tourist. Segmentation principle is very much helpful in
marketing of the tourism product which helps in developing marketing mix strategies to
enjoy the tourism completive advantages. There is several push and pull factor which
motivate the tourist in selecting the destinations those factors includes pleasure, the
attractiveness of the place, facilities available, safety etc. Those factors require proper
marketing communication. The tourist motivation analysis is becoming crucial day by day
because the test and preference of tourist are changing so fast. The tourism marketer should
follow that trend of changing motivation which will help them in formulating marketing
strategies.
A consumer market can be segmented on the basis of geographical variables, demographic
variables, psychographic variables and behaviouristic variables.

Targeting of Tourism Market

A proper marketing strategy must be developed to match service offerings to customer
needs. For this purpose, the market segment opportunities are identified through the
process of market segmentation. There are three basic strategies available for achieving
customer satisfaction.
 In differentiated marketing
 Differentiated marketing
 Concentrated marketing

In differentiated Marketing
When the same type of service is offered in all segments, then it is known as
'Undifferentiated Marketing'. It focuses on what is common among the needs of the
customers rather than on what is different. No distinction is made as to the travelling area.
The area is treated as one and aggregate. It aims to instil in the customers minds that the
service is a superior one. For example, the transport facility is introduced in all tourist
spots.

Differentiated Marketing
Differentiated marketing attempts to satisfy a part of the total market by marketing a
number of services designed to appeal to individual parts of the total market. In other
words, when a particular type of service is designed for a particular segment, it is known as
'differentiated marketing'. It is introduced with a separate marketing programme. For
example free accommodation facility is available in specified locations along with other
services.

Concentrated Marketing
When a service is introduced only on segment after a careful study and is like to be
extended to other segments later, then it is known as 'concentrated marketing'. When a
newly introduced service seems to be successful, it will be extended to all other segments.
Otherwise it will be dropped.

Tourism Market Positioning

The Department of Tourism must decide on the position it wants to occupy in those
segments after identifying the most attractive segments for entry. The way in which the
product is defined by the consumers on important attributes is known as product's position.
It is the place the product occupies in the consumers’ minds, considering the competing
products. The marketer can follow several positioning strategies. The providers can
position its product on the basis of the attributes of the product, the benefits it offers, the
usage occasions and the like. As a result, the Department of Tourism in India offering
similar services at similar charges, try to build their image to make the customers familiar
with a particular aspect of their organization. Thus in tourism market positioning is the
image building. The Department offers similar services with different symbols. Positioning
aims at helping customers see the differences between competing tourist places so that
they can match themselves to the service that can be of most value to them. At present the
Department of Tourism has entered into the market with certain slogans to position their
names in the minds of the customers.

Adjust of Marketing Mix

Once market segmentation is carried out, for each segment there must be an appropriate
marketing mix. As the tourism industry has recently recognized the possibility of market
segmentation and is slowly identifying new segments of market potential, a different
marketing mix for each segment is very difficult to ascertain. But certainly, some aspects of
the mix particularly 'promotion' can be geared to particular target markets. Each market
segment has different characteristics. The decision on marketing mix receives greater
attention in developing the tourist marketing programme. To exploit any one segment
effectively, these characteristics must be known and accordingly the marketing mix must
be adopted. The service provider must also be aware of the restraints that exist with regard
to marketing decisions. There are five broad areas that influence and often restrain the
service providers’ decisions. They are:
 Economic environment
 Cultural environment
 Legal environment
 Competitive environment and
 Resources and policies of the Department of tourism

In the light of the restraints stated above, the marketing decisions must be made, as they
interact within a single marketing mix.

DESTINATION BRANDING AND POSITIONING

The strength of a brand’s position is built on six elements: brand domain, brand heritage,
brand values, brand assets, brand personality and brand reflection. Brand domain refers to
the choice of target market. Other five factors provide ways for creating a clear and
differentiated advantage (Jobber, 2004, pp.269-271).
 Brand Domain – Refers to the brand’s target market, for example, where
the brand competes in the market place.
 Brand Heritage – Refers to the brand’s background and culture. Answer
to question how the brand has achieved success and/or failure over its life.
 Brand Values – Refers to the brand’s core values and characteristics.
 Brand Assets – refers to symbols,
 Brand personality – Refers to the brand’s character which can be described
through, for example- people, animals, or objects.
 Brand reflection – Refers to how the brand relates to self identity which
means how the customer perceives him/ herself as a result features, images
and relationships that distinct the brand from its competitors.of buying/ using
the brand (ibid).
As tourism services are intangible, images become more important than reality and the
tourism destination images projected in information space will greatly influence the
destination images as perceived by consumers. The latter are generally accepted to be
based on attributes functional consequences or expected benefits and the psychological
characteristics that consumers associate with a specific destination or tourism service. As a
consequence, projected images influence destination positioning and ultimately the
tourist‘s buying behaviour. Tourism destinations use promotion and marketing
communication strategy to influence destination image Narratives and visuals, for example,
are used to create meaning in the market, deploying media and information and
communication technology as enablers. Destinations can influence image formation
indirectly through secondary place interactions with consumers that is “vicarious
experiences”. These are facilitated by intermediaries and produced imagination in, for
instance, the media, literature, arts, and popular culture (e.g., motion pictures, TV shows, or
music) found that –“destination image also sets up criteria for negative evaluation. The
promotional image is largely skewed towards a set of favourable experiences. When
visitors encounter settings or experiences that differ markedly from their expectations, their
evaluations can be very negative.”
In the modern time branding, positioning is becoming so much crucial for any marketing
activity especially in the case of tourism marketing it is so important compare to the
product marketing because tourism is so dynamic in nature. The image of a destination is
depending how correctly it is branded and positioned within the mind of the target group.
The positioning and the branding of tourism destination creates the attractiveness and also
help in increasing the pull factor in positioning and branding of the tourism destination
depends on promotional activities. It helps in projecting the image in front of the target
group with proper media. Promotion helps in providing the in-depth information about the
destination properly it works as a tool of motivating prospective tourist in selecting a
tourism destination.

MODEL OF DESTINATION IMAGE FORMULATION

These determinants help shape the TDI as an attitudinal construct that comprises of a
consumers mental understanding of knowledge, feelings and global impression of a
destination. The image has a perceptual/cognitive as well as an effective element which
generate response to create an overall image of the destination as shown in the figure.
Baloglu and Mc Cleary (1999) provided a framework to analyse TDI, which is
conditioned by two key elements.
 Stimulus Factors (external stimuli, physical objects, personal experience)
 Personal Factors (Social and Psychological characteristics of the consumer)
As a result, three determinants of TDI were identified by Baloglu and Mc Cleary
(1999)
 Tourism motivation
 Socio demographic factors
 Information sources
The cognitive image is analogous to behaviour since it is the intent or action component.
Intent refers to the likelihood of brand purchase (Howard & Sheth 1969). Conation may
be considered as the likelihood of visiting a destination within a given time period.
Woodside & Sherrell (1977) found intent to visit was higher for destinations in the
evoked set, as did Thompson & Cooper (1979) and Pike (2002). The Figure highlights
how the cognition/affect/conation relationships apply in decision making. The process is
similar to the AIDA model used by advertisers, where the aim is to guide a consumer
through the stages of awareness, interest, desire and action.
 Figure 6.2: Cognition/affect/conation

Need awareness Develop alternatives (Cognition) Evaluate alternatives

(Affect)Choice (Conation)

Source: Adapted from Myers (1992)

ENHANCING INDIA'S COMPETITIVENESS AS A TOURIST

DESTINATION

There are some ways for enhancing the competitiveness of India as Tourist Destination-

 Visa on Arrival- Implement visa on arrival and consider strategies for the fast
issuance of visas and permits including electronic visa approaches, and
improved processing of arrivals by customs and immigration officials.
 Computerization of the system of issue of visas by Embassies or High
Commissions.
 Air capacity available to India is woefully short during peak travel months
ranging from October to March and especially from main tourism originating
destinations like North America, Western Europe and South East Asia.
Additional seat capacity from the major destinations would provide a major
impetus to tourism and economic development. An analysis by Indian Council
for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) reveals that the
benefits of the additional seat capacity whether provided by the national carrier
or any other international carrier would have a significant benefit for national
economy.

 Improve the standard of facilities and services at the nations international and
major domestic airports by employing professional property management
 agencies to manage the physical premises on an outsource basis, and speeding
up the privatization or leasing of airports.
 There is a need for creation of special tourism police force for deployment
at major tourism destinations. This will provide travellers security through a
spirit of courtesy and hospitality.

TOURISM AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)

The IT has added the extra power with the tourism marketing which helps in exchanging
the information’s in a systematic manner. Research in the field of tourism has become
much more impactful with the help of IT. The modern time is the era of internet. Internet
has become the blessing for tourism industry which helps in promoting the information to
the target market in cost effective manner. The IT has created the platform for better
accountability of the tourism initiatives, marketing and customer relationship. With the
help of e-marketing tourism as a commodity is getting better market and acceptability. It
has also created the platform for direct (B2C i.e. Business to Customer) selling.

ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR TOURISM PROMOTION

The role of the Government in tourism development has been redefined from that of a
regulator to that of a catalyst. Apart from marketing and promotion, the focus of tourism
development plan is now on integrated development of enabling infrastructure through
effective partnership with various stakeholders. Tourism development in India has passed
through many phases. The development of tourist facilities was taken up in a planned
manner in 1956 coinciding with the Second Five Year Plan. The approach has evolved
from isolated planning of single unit facilities in the Second and Third Five Year Plans.
The Sixth Plan marked the beginning of a new era when tourism began to be considered a
major instrument for social integration and economic development. However, it was only
after the 80’s that tourism activity gained momentum. A National Policy on Tourism was
announced in 1982. In 1992, a National Action Plan was prepared and in 1996 the National
Strategy for Promotion of Tourism was drafted. In 1997, a draft New Tourism Policy in
tune with the economic policies of the Government and the trends in tourism development
was published for public debate. The draft policy is now under revision. The proposed
policy recognizes the roles of Central and State Governments, Public Sector Undertakings
and the Private Sector in the development of tourism.
The need for involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions, local bodies,
nongovernmental organizations and the local youth in the creation of tourism facilities has
also been recognized.
As per the working strategy for the 12th Five Year Plan, the Ministry of Tourism has
adopted a pro-poor tourism approach which could contribute significantly to poverty
reduction. More than half of Tourism Ministry’s Plan budget is channelized for funding the
development of destinations, circuits, mega projects as also for rural tourism
infrastructure projects. The Ministry also ensured that 10 per cent and 2.5 per cent of its
total Annual Plan (2012-13) outlay went to the tourism projects in the North- Eastern
region and the tribal areas respectively.
The other major development that took place where the setting up of the India Tourism
Development Corporation in 1966 to promote India as a tourist destination and the Tourism
Finance Corporation in 1989 to finance tourism projects. Altogether, 21 Government-run
Hotel Management and Catering Technology Institutes and 14 Food Craft Institutes were
also established for imparting specialized training in hotel and catering.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN TOURISM PROMOTION IN WEST

BENGAL

West Bengal Tourism comprises of Tourism Department, Government of West Bengal to

formulate policies and implement programmes for the development of tourism in the state.
To show case rural life, art, culture and heritage of rural locations in villages and to benefit
the local community economically and socially, the West Bengal tourism has decided to
develop and promote rural tourism. Some Tourism Schemes have been formulated for
focusing on developing tourism related infrastructure that would help promote tourism.
Later this was complemented in collaboration with UNDP and Ministry of Tourism,
Government of India for Endogenous Rural Tourism as a pilot project. The Government of
India extends the scheme of Capacity Building for Service Providers (CBSP) to the rural
sites. West Bengal tourism has identified rural tourism areas for development and they
have been developed it in a phased manner. The government of West Bengal has taken
steps to strengthen the existing infrastructure at the tourist destinations and to identify the
areas of tourist importance and to develop them with adequate infrastructure for the benefit
of tourists. The strategies for tourism promotion in West Bengal are as follows-

 Promotion and development of places of local importance and identifying

new tourism potential for development.
 Providing facilities for recreation and adventure sports at select tourist places.
 Organizing fairs and festivals in and outside West Bengal.
 To appoint marketing agents inside and outside the country effective
promotion of tourism.
 To produce quality guides.

Tourism promotion also generates employment in urban as well as rural areas. It may arrest
the large scale migration of rural mass to urban centres. The Government of West Bengal
has taken steps to strengthen the existing infrastructure at the tourist destinations and to
identify the areas of tourist importance and to develop them with adequate infrastructure.
The villages in West Bengal are a treasure of unadulterated culture, fine arts, martial arts,
handicrafts, herbal cures etc. The tourist mostly foreigners show keen interest in watching
the day-today activities of Indian villages including West Bengal.

Policy Oriented Approach

In India, rural tourism as a concept was envisaged in the National Tourism Policy 2002. A
Rural Tourism scheme was formulated in 2002 focusing on developing tourism related
infrastructure that would help to promote rural tourism. This was later supplemented and
complemented by a pilot project called Endogenous Tourism Project (ETP) in
collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) by building and
strengthening livelihoods linked with local communities.

INITIATIVES BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR TOURISM PROMOTION

A special initiative was launched in 2009-10 for the creation of employable skills among
youth belonging to economically weaker sections of the society in the age group of 18-25
years (upper age limit raised to 28 years in November, 2010) with the basic objective to
reduce the skill gap affecting the hospitality and tourism sector and to ensure the spread of
economic benefit of tourism to the poor. The programme offers short duration courses of 6
to 8 weeks which are fully funded by the Ministry of Tourism. Initially covering two
courses namely, (i) food and beverage service; and (ii) food production, courses in
Housekeeping, and Utility. Bakery and Patisserie were added subsequently. With the
growing acceptability of the initiative more trades or training areas were added like to bring
up drivers, golf caddies, stone mason, security guards and tourist facilitators etc. For the
year 2012-13, 21,175 persons have been trained under the initiative up to 31st January
2013.

Visa on Arrival (VOA)

Considering the importance of Visa facilities in enhancing tourist inflow, the facility of
Long Term Tourist Visas of five years duration with multiple entries, carrying a
stipulation of 90 days for each visit, has been introduced on a pilot basis for the nationals of
the 18 selected countries. The findings of an evaluation study conducted by this Ministry
have reinforced the belief that the presence of the facility of “Visa on Arrival” (VoA)
significantly influences the tourists travel plans to any country. During 2012, a total
number of 16,084 VoAs (Visa on Arrival) were issued as compared to 12,761 VoAs during
the corresponding period of 2011, thereby showing a growth of 26 per cent. Efforts are on
to extend the VoA facility for the nationals of more countries.

Publicity and Marketing Strategy

As part of its domestic and global publicity and marketing strategy to promote tourism and
create social awareness through the print and electronic media, the Ministry of Tourism
launched campaigns on Clean India, Atithi Devo Bhava and Hunar Se Rozgaar through
radio channels. Campaigns highlighting the tourism potential of North-East and J and K
were also carried out through Doordarshan. Campaigns were also taken up for “Incredible
India” branding on TV during 2nd Formula Grand Prix and London Olympics, 2012,
during the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa, and during the
International India Film Academy (IIFA) Awards 2012 in Singapore. The Ministry had
participated in major international Travel Fairs and Exhibitions in important tourist
generating markets the world over, as well as in emerging and potential markets, to
showcase and promote the tourism products of the country. These included Arabian Travel
Market (ATM) in Dubai, International Trade Business (ITB-Asia) in Singapore, World
Travel Market (WTM) in London, International Meetings Exhibitions (IMEX) in Frankfurt,
International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) in Madrid and the like. To showcase and project
the Buddhist Heritage of India, an International Buddhist Conclave was organized by the
Ministry of Tourism in Varanasi in September 2012 and attended by 132 international
delegates from around 30 countries. The delegates were taken for a visit to Sarnath and
Bodh Gaya. For the first time, an International Tourism Mart was held at Guwahati in
January, 2013 to showcase the largely untapped tourism potential of the north-Eastern
region in the domestic and international markets. There are 79 International Buyers and
media delegates from 23 countries and hundreds of tour operators from different parts of
India participated in the Mart and engaged in one-to-one meetings with sellers from the
North East Region and West Bengal. The international delegates were taken on
Familiarization Tours of the North Eastern Region.
 CHAPTER V

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS