Abhishek Chowdhury, secretary, Travel Operators Welfare Association urged the various agencies working in the tourism sector to come under one umbrella to enhance the flow of international and domestic tourists.

He was addressing a gathering at Nehru Children’s Museum to celebrate the World Tourism Day. The day was observed in the stare with enthusiasm. Mr Chowdhury said the tourism sector in West Bengal is coming in a big way along with health, religious and adventure tourism. “The tourists are visiting remote areas, where homestays have come up as they want to explore not frequently visited areas,” he remarked.

Ratanlal Biswas, a 70-year-old adventure tourist, said the presence of tourists from Bengal in European countries was not impressive while Bidyut Dey said the travel agencies should make the visitors aware of the areas they are visiting. “Many of the tourists visiting different areas are keen to know about the places, their history, heritage, people and culture.”

The day was observed with great enthusiasm in Jhargram. The state is coming up fast as a tourist destination. After coming to power in 2011, chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited the area, once under the control of the Maoists to restore the confidence of the people. Now, there are more than 100 registered hotels and homestays. People are visiting the district round-the-year. Along with home stays, farm stays have also come where people can enjoy rural life.

World Tourism Day cum tourism awareness camp was held among the villagers of Khandarani Lake. It was organized by Jhargram Tourism and supported by Enterprising Travel Agents Associations (ETTA). The main focus was to make the villagers aware of tourism and peace. Mr Sumit Dutta, founder Jhargram Tourism said the range officer of Belpahari to remove the signboards from the trees as they are causing visual pollution.

Mr Kaushik Banerjee, chapter chairman ETAA said the local culture of Jhargram is very rich and the people visiting the areas should be made aware of this. During the tourist inflow, fairs are held where the local artisans bring their products, particularly costume jewellery made of black stone.

Chocolate Hotels celebrated the day by planting trees. Nirmalya Chaudhuri, director, said a leaflet Dekho Apna West Bengal was distributed among the guests. The leaflet contains information about the progress of West Bengal in tourism.