Tag Archives: Siliguri

The 06th edition of the Bengal Travel Mart, East & North East India’s largest B2B travel show, was held at Mayfair Tea Resort in Siliguri from March 5th to 7th, 22. Gautam Deb, Mayor Siliguri Municipal Corporation was the chief guest. BTM’s aim is to create Siliguri as a hub for the Eastern Himalayas’ inbound domestic market, providing opportunity for buyers and sellers to closely interact on a productive platform.

Dr. Dhananjay Regmi, CEO, Nepal Tourism Board, has said that their government may soon open land borders with India so that the number of tourists visiting can grow. “There are immigration points between India and Nepal near Darjeeling, Siliguri, Gorakhpur, Lucknow and Bihar. I have suggested to the industry in India that they make land transport packages to Nepal,” he said.

Lemon Tree Hotels will be operating 85 hotels with 8,674 rooms across 57 cities by FY2021, informed Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels and Director, Carnation Hotels. He said, “This year, we have enjoyed very high occupancy, close to 79 per cent. We have opened a few properties this year, including Dehradun, Pune, Siliguri and Morjim. We should be able to open an owned hotel in Mumbai, followed by Kolkata. Then we should be able to open a managed property in Kalina, Mumbai.”    

West Bengal tourism department is currently focusing on homestay tourism policy and has also started promoting adventure tourism in different destinations of the state, said Gautam Deb, Tourism Minister, Government of West Bengal, on the sidelines of the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) in Siliguri. Deb inaugurated the third edition of BTM along with Bratya Basu, Information Technology Minister, Government of West Bengal, and James Kujur, Tribal Development Minister, Government of West Bengal. “Bengal has immense potential. We are currently working to develop each sector of tourism in the state – from forest to hills to coastal areas. We are also preparing our integrated tourism policy along with homestay and adventure tourism policies,” he said. Deb also pointed out that the Bagdogra airport’s instrument landing system (ILS) will start operating from March 29, as per an AAI notification. He was happy to inform that in the previous year, the passenger growth at the airport touched 22 lakh. The three-day travel mart was attended by buyers and sellers from across the country and abroad to establish partnership. The event was organised by Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association  (EHTTOA) in association with North Bengal Development Department and West Bengal Tourism.

The third edition of the Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) 2018 has been scheduled to be held from February 16-18 at Baghajatin Park, Siliguri. The objective is to establish Siliguri as a market place for gateway to the Eastern Himalayas. The event is being organised by Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association (EHTTOA) in association with North Bengal Development Department (NBDD) and West Bengal Tourism. Buyers from India abroad are expected to participate in the event. BTM attracts exhibitors to showcase their expertise and identify the thriving business opportunities in West Bengal.

The Lemon Tree Hotel Company is on an expansion spree and will be opening 8-9 hotels at various destinations in India this year. Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels & Director, Carnation Hotels, said, “In the Carnation operating space, we have 8-9 hotels opening in this fiscal year. Since the demonetisation pressure, some of our properties are getting delayed by another three months or four months. We will open hotels in Sikkim, Siliguri, Jammu, Corbett, Trivandrum, Coimbatore and we will open one hotel in Sohna Road as well. Also, there will be 7-8 hotels in managed space. But mid next year, there will be few openings that we will be doing in our own spaces. We will have Kolkata and Pune open and even Udaipur could be on cards.”

The department of Tourism, North Bengal Development Department and Eastern Himalaya Travel & Tour Operators Association (EHTTOA), the largest body of tourism industry in North East, jointly organised the second edition of three-day long Bengal Travel Mart (BTM) in Siliguri under Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It is the first event in the state where at least 144 delegates from different states along with delegates from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka participated. It also included more than 200 stakeholders (buyers and sellers) for BTB meet and practical visits of the tourism sports in the region. The main motto behind the BTM is to enhance West Bengal tourism. The participants in the mart stakeholders said that this would boom their tourism industry as a whole.

Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Minister of Railways, Government of India, flagged off two new trains in the service of the nation through video-conferencing today. The first one is a new Express train viz. 15623/15624 Kamakhya-Bhagat Ki Kothi (Jodhpur) Express(Weekly) and the second one is a new Passenger service viz. 75713/75714 Siliguri-New Coochbehar DEMU (six days a week) on the newly constructed New Coochbehar-Changrabandha section. Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways, Government of India, was also present at the occasion. Prabhu says that this was a long-standing demand of the people of North-Eastern region to provide train services in these areas. He said that the connectivity through DEMU train between New Coochbehar and Changrabandha in West Bengal will benefit all sections of the society including daily-passengers and businessmen. He adds that the other train service i.e. the Kamakhya-Bhagat Ki Kothi Express will not only connect North India from North East India but will also help pilgrims visiting Kamakhya Temple in Assam. This train will reach Bhagat Ki Kothi station by passing seven states of India. Prabhu informs that this is a historic day and Indian Railways will work to the maximum extent possible to provide better rail transportation to the people of India.