Website on weekend tourism showcasing lesser known places in state launched

State Tourism minister Goutam Deb on Friday launched a website on weekend tourism containing details of some lesser known spots but are well connected.

There are 44 such places across 20 districts of the state. These places fall within a driving distance between one and two and half hours from a prominent city of the state and the places which are lesser known to people. The distinctive features of the places have been put up.

While doing the extensive research work on the concept of “Weekend-Tourism”, officials of the department realised the potential of the state as a tourist destination.

The most popular and successful model is “village- tourism” especially for the South Bengal districts. The resorts which are based on such model are attracting weekenders throughout the year and in turn generating good amount of job for the villagers.

Sundargram in North 24 Parganas, Mon Chasa in East Midnapore are successfully promoting village-tourism model. Of late, with the support of the state government, the North Bengal districts, especially Darjeeling- Alipurduar- Jalpaiguri-Cooch Behar are fantastically promoting the “homestay” model.

A large number of people are getting directly involved with the tourism industry. Neora Valley, Lamahatta, Takdah, Ichche Gaon, Bara Mangwa-Chota Mangwa all these picturesque mountainous villages getting prominence on the tourism map of the State along with Darjeeling- Kalimpong-Lava- Lolegaon.

The Western districts of the state are dotted with folk habitation and red soil and hence the area is ideal for promoting “eco-tourism.” Places like Telkupi, Khairabera in Purulia; Gopegarh, Garshalboni in East Midnapore, Khoai in BIrbhum are classic examples of eco-tourism.

Then comes the East. 

Seashores are all time favourites among Bengalis and hence new places like Junput and Tajpur are getting popular day by day. Sunderbans and its mangrove are also widely covered in the website.

As the website is designed for promoting “Weekend-Tourism” in the State, we tried to keep it highly informative and detailed with the description of the places, how to reach, where to stay, what to eat along with tariffs and contacts.