Kolkata, Sep 25 The West Bengal government will hold an investors’ meet here on Sunday to seek more investment in the tourism sector, a minister said on Friday.
The event will be organised on the occasion of World Tourism Day, and investors from within and outside the state are expected to participate in it, Tourism Minister Shankar Ghosh said in a press conference.
He said this would be the first such initiative by the state Tourism Department.
“An investors’ meet focused on tourism had never been organised before… The state government seeks to convert tourism potential into investment and investment into employment opportunities,” he said.
Emphasising the growing role of technology in tourism, Ghosh said the government was working towards making the sector more technology-driven.
“Artificial intelligence and new technologies are increasingly influencing the choice of destinations and travel planning by tourists. Therefore, we have been trying to make tourism technology-oriented,” he said.
Alongside efforts to attract investment, infrastructure development is also being undertaken at various tourism destinations across north and south Bengal, the minister said.
The state has received approval for Rs 57 crore under the Centre’s Swadesh Darshan scheme for the development of Mirik Lake in Darjeeling district, he said.
He said work on the ‘One State, One Global Destination’ initiative — covering Darjeeling, Kurseong and Mirik as well as the Sundarbans — was nearing completion.
The government is also laying emphasis on river tourism, Ghosh said, adding that an agreement had been signed with Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) for introducing a hybrid-electric ferry capable of carrying 100 passengers.
New jetties are also being developed in Kolkata, Barrackpore, Hooghly and Nadia to facilitate tourists, he said.
The minister said the government was also seeking to integrate district-level festivals and fairs with tourism.
The broader objective was not merely to increase revenue but to create employment opportunities and take West Bengal’s tourism sector to a higher level, Ghosh added.
(PTI News)
