Three-day Bengal Tourism Fest kicks off at Khudiram Anusilan Kendra

kolkata: The three-day Bengal Tourism Fest (BTF) kicked off at Khudiram Anusilan Kendra from Friday to satiate the cravings of the travel loving Bengalees in planning for the destination of their choice with a little over four months to go before the puja holidays.

“The BTF is aimed at providing a platform to the tour operators and travel agents to showcase the various tourism packages that will be on offer ahead of the pujas. Attractive discounts in booking will be available during spot booking of hotels as well as tour packages,”Swarup Bhattacharya, Joint Secretary of Association of Tourism Service Providers of Bengal (ATSP) said.

Infact, the booking of tickets for train travel will open soon after the summer holidays in schools get over.

For the first time this year, international destination management companies from Singapore, Thailand and Dubai are participating in the BTF .

“In the last three years, there has been a reluctance among tourists for international travel due to Covid pandemic. But this year, international travel is expected to pick up with situations becoming normal,”an official of ATSP said.

There will be an hourly lottery which will offer free 2 night stay in different destinations for the winners.

Sagnik Chowdhury, Regional Director (East) India Tourism, Kolkata who attended the inaugural session stressed upon safe and honourable tourism.

“Often there are complaints from tourists of not getting services that are promised to them at the time of booking. So we are planning to hold workshops with different tourism associations so that customers get the best of satisfaction in travelling,”he added.

There are 110 private stalls and 6 state tourism stalls at the 7th edition of BTF this year.