To sum up in a word, Bengal is a Blessed Land. In Bengali, we refer to the State as “Sonar Bangla”, a land which has an evergreen golden hue about it, which emanates from the endless fields of crops and the large and innumerable orchards dotting the entire landscape. Crisscrossed by rivers, wide, deep and mountainous; the majestic Himalayas in the North with gorgeous hill resorts; the deep and mysterious Sunderbans forests (a World Heritage Site), home of the famous Royal Bengal Tiger; a plateau with folk habitations and red soil in the West; the Bay of Bengal with its sea resorts in the South and the charming, cosmopolitan, welcoming and colourful cities led by the capital Kolkata (Calcutta), the land of Bengal is always one for the album of every traveller and tourist in the world. You can make your own unforgettable sweet memories in Bengal, which also hosts one of the largest cultural festivals of the world - the Durga Puja, in late September/October every year.

For promoting weekend destinations of the State, The Bengal Chamber launched its weekend-tourism website, www.bengalweekend.com on 13th January 2017. Shri Goutam Deb, Hon’ble Minister-in-Charge, Tourism Department, West Bengal Government launched the website in the Chamber Premises. Inaugurating the website, the Hon’ble Minister said the Chamber’s initiative would complement the Government’s bid to make West Bengal a favourite amongst travellers. He also said that the kind of places which were chosen would provide a direct income generation model to the people through community tourism.

Mr Sutanu Ghosh, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, elaborated on how such an idea of promoting “lesser-known” places of the State clicked. Mr Ghosh said that the Chamber focused on concepts like “village-tourism”, “eco-tourism” where weekenders travel not as tourists but as a traveller or explorer.

Mr Subhodip Ghosh, Director General, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the Chamber chose forty-four such places which are lesser known to people. Most of these places lie within an hour to two-and-a half hour driving distance from leading cities of the State. He said that the site revealed a vivid description of each location and detailed information on how to reach (supported with Google map), where to stay, what to eat, how to book with contacts and tariff details.

Mr. Anil Punjabi, Chairperson, Tourism Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the site would be updated with more places on a weekly basis. On behalf of the Committee he requested the Hon’ble Minister to kindly advise his Department to provide a link of www.bengalweekend.com from the Tourism Department’s official website.