West Bengal govt deliberates with tourism industry players to strategise development policy

The Tourism Department on Saturday deliberated with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) to formulate a tourism development strategy.

There was a consensus to evaluate in detail many of the issues concerning the industry, including policy for heritage tourism, direct and last-mile connectivity for tourist destinations, strengthening single-window clearance mechanism, and adventure and eco-tourism policy, an official statement said.

The workshop discussed ways to evolve an eclectic and holistic tourism strategy for tapping the immense tourism potential of the state, it said.

It was decided to constitute sub-groups for more focused attention on niche sectors, including heritage tourism, rural tourism, film tourism, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, river tourism and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourism, it added.

The evolving strategy shall be expected to focus on skilling the stakeholders of the travel and tourism industry with a view to unlock the huge employment opportunities, the statement said.