Bengal tourism: Government to announce new home stay, heritage tourism policy

Kolkata: The West Bengal government is working on a comprehensive and attractive home stay policy and heritage tourism policy to encourage community tourism and attract tourists to the state, Principal Secretary, Tourism, AR Bardhan said here today.

It would be released in January and is a part of the state government's policy to promote inclusive growth, he added.

"A new tourism policy and incentive scheme is already in place with the vision of making West Bengal a world class tourist destination and achieve the stated target of growth rate in tourist arrival in excess of 10 per cent year to year over the next five years," Bardhan said at the 'Travel East-2016'.

"We seek to enhance branded hotel accommodation in Bengal to 10,000 by 2020. As per our incentive policy, we have disbursed Rs 26 crore to different hotel units in Bengal," he said, adding that the Tourism department planned to organise roadshows in Tier II and III cities to attract more domestic footfall.

He said other notable plans included cottages at Tiger Hill in Darjeeling to let the tourists experience the surreal views of the Himalayas and the sunrise.

"We are also focusing on hill destinations such as Kalimpong, Kolakham, Lava, Lolegaon etc. As well as working on introducing Swiss cottages at many places," Bardhan said.

He said the government was also working on a plan for tourism circuits, including the historical trail of Murshidabad, Plassey, Nadia, the religious trail of Tarapith, Belur, Dakshineshwar and the beach trail of Digha, Mandarmoni, Tajpur, Udaipur.