Tourism dept to conduct quiz competition to popularise tourist spots

Kolkata: In a unique bid to arouse more curiosity among the people of Bengal to explore diverse tourist spots spanning across the state, the Bengal Tourism department has decided to host a quiz competition to boost tourism.

"A section of tourists in this state have developed a tendency to travel to foreign places but they are hardly aware that there is so much that they can explore in Bengal. The Great Bengal Quiz 2018 on Tourism is our effort to raise mass awareness on Bengal tourism," a senior official of the state Tourism department said.

Elaborating on the initiative, the official said apart from general questions pertaining to state tourism, the quiz master will ask questions related to some new projects

and unconventional tourist places that the government has developed.

If the questions cannot be answered by the participants there will be government officials among the audience who will answer those questions and make people aware of the various government moves taken to develop tourism. "This will result in a whispering campaign among the audience and help in awareness building,"

the official added.

State Tourism minister Goutam Deb said: "This is perhaps for the first time that any state in the country has taken to quiz for awareness building in tourism."

It may be mentioned that the competition has been divided into four zones: Zone A will have eight districts Kolkata, South and North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly,

Paschim Midnapur, Purba Midnapur and Jhargram, zone B will have Bankura, Purulia, Purba and Paschim Burdwan, zone C will have Nadia, Murshidabad, South and North Dinajpur while zone D will have Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling

and Kalimpong.

The competition in Zone C will be held on December 30 at Motijhil Complex in Berhampore.

For Zone A and B, it will be held on January 6 at Uttirna, Kolkata and Srijani Auditorium at Durgapur City Centre respectively.

There will be open participation in the quiz from the inhabitants of the concerned districts from any age group by forming a three-member team.

The number of applications may be limited to 100 groups per zone to be selected on first

come first served basis.

Two teams will be selected from each of the four zones and eight teams will contest at the

final that will be held on January 13 at Calcutta Rowing Club.

Willing participants can register themselves in the prescribed format that has been put on the website of West Bengal tourism.