June 2, 2015
Bengal Tourism gears up for new look
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee will not only promote West Bengal as an industry-friendly state during her London visit, she also plans to showcase the state as an attractive tourist destination.
New logo
The State Tourism Department has come up with a new brand logo for tourism and a new promotional campaign is in the pipeline that will be made keeping the international audience in mind. All kinds of initiatives to promote Bengal as a tourist destination is being taken.
The earlier brand name that the tourism department had created -`Beautiful Bengal’ -has been changed and the same will now be named, `Experience Bengal -Sweetest Part of India’.
The duration of the new promotional film is 30 to 40 seconds. It will be aired nationally. The shooting will start in July. The tourism department had earlier roped in internationally reputed brand consulting agency to develop a new brand concept for Bengal tourism.
Promoting Bengal
The tourism department has been giving much stress to showcase the state’s tourist spots through social media. Already, the tourism department’s Facebook page has crossed three lakh `likes’ and is now positioned at number three, in term of `likes’, among Indian states.
The tourism department has already participated in various international tourism fairs like ITB Berlin and ITB Singapore to showcase Bengal. The state government is planning to have road shows in countries like USA, Canada, China and Australia to promote West Bengal as a tourist destination.
Increased tourist footfall
The tourist footfall, including both domestic and foreign, almost doubled from 26792502 in 2013 to 50415685 visitors in 2014.
The Chief Minister has been giving priority to tourism. From a meager budgetary allocation of Rs 44 crore in 2011, the budget provision for tourism this year has been raised to Rs 211 crore.
According to figures, West Bengal is now the sixth preferred destination for international tourists and ranks ninth among the states in respect of domestic tourist inflow.
Apart from the ongoing initiatives to set up eco tourism hubs in several places, the department is exploring the opportunities of developing leisure tourism in upcoming tourist destinations like Gangasagar. Plans are also on cards to develop eco-tourism on PPP mode, tea tourism and invest in adventure and beach sports.
