State to come up with revised Tourism Service Provider policy to draw traction

Kolkata: The state Tourism department will soon come up with a revised Tourism Service Provider (TSP) policy for the purpose of registering more tour operators or travel agents across the state. There are as many as 1 lakh TSPs across the state but the percentage of them who have registered with the department is not encouraging.

“During our interaction with the stakeholders, we have realised that qualification for registration needs to be revised. Depending upon the inputs we are revising the policy,” state Tourism Secretary Saumitra Mohan said addressing the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) organised Travel India 2023 — a two-day conference and expo on travel and tourism.

According to sources in the Tourism department, the revised policy is awaiting the clearance of the Cabinet.

In the existing policy, the qualification for registration required was some sort of experience in travel, tourism or hospitality sector. However, it has been found that good communication skills, smart appearance etc can also make good TSP. Mohan said the government has laid special emphasis on sensitisation and capacity building of stakeholders which is important for sustainable and responsible tourism.

“We are coming up with a number of new policies namely, eco tourism policy, adventure tourism policy, caravan tourism policy, river tourism, PPP tourism, rural tourism, health and wellness tourism for providing boost to the sector in the state,” added Mohan.

The state has already framed policies like tourism policy, home stay policy, tea tourism, incentive policy, tourist guide policy etc. “The push in tourism is important as it has enormous potential for livelihood. A little capital investment can yield good results,” Mohan added.

West Bengal witnessed the arrival of 2.5 crore foreign tourists last year, which the state government feels can be augmented further through planned interventions and framing of policies.