Can 'One District, One Destination' catalyse tourism in West Bengal?

Bengal has no dearth of destinations. What it lacks is an integrated system that converts scattered assets into professionally managed tourismWest Bengal is preparing to shift the way it sells tourism, from a handful of established destinations and seasonal peaks to a more decentralised, year-round model in which every district is expected to develop and promote at least one signature destination.The state tourism department has decided to give district administrations and local bodies a greater role in planning and executing tourism projects, while adopting a ‘One District, One Destination’ policy aimed at packaging the state’s diverse attractions into a single, coordinated tourism proposition.Announcing the initiative at Udayachal Tourism Property in Kolkata’s Salt Lake on August 24, tourism minister Shankar Ghosh said the department would assist district administrations and local bodies in preparing detailed project reports (DPRs) and implementing tourism projects through coordination with the urban development and municipal affairs department.The move addresses what the minister described as a structural problem in the existing system: districts could identify potential tourism projects, but lacked the authority and institutional capacity to prepare DPRs and execute them. “We have received proposals from lawmakers, tourism stakeholders and individuals for tourism projects in different districts. However, we noted that district administrations did not have the authority to prepare detailed project reports on prospective tourism projects or execute such projects,” Ghosh said.“We have decided that our department will assist the administrations in different districts and local bodies in preparing and implementing these projects through the urban development and municipal affairs department,” he added.On August 25, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with his advisor Dr Subrata Gupta, chief secretary Manoj Agarwal and other key officials, met members of the tourism department. Later, Ghosh said Adhikari has advised the department to modernise every property under it as well as develop new destinations.Under the ‘One District, One Destination’ model, each district will identify a major destination and prepare tourism packages around it. These packages are expected to become part of a broader state-level promotional campaign. The underlying idea is not merely to add more tourist spots but create identifiable district-level tourism brands that can be marketed throughout the year.“The administrations in the districts have been asked to prepare tourism packages highlighting their respective destinations, which would subsequently be promoted as part of the state’s comprehensive tourism campaign,” said the minister.“We are promoting each district of the state through our new ‘One District, One Destination’ policy by involving the respective district administrations in a comprehensive tourism promotion programme,” Ghosh said.The government hopes that a wider geographical spread of destinations will also help address one of Bengal tourism’s persistent weaknesses: the dependence on a few established circuits and particular seasons. Ghosh said the objective was to move away from a tourism calendar concentrated around specific periods of the year.“As a result, tourism seasons will exist in the state for 365 days instead of being season-based,” the tourism minister said.The challenge, however, will be turning administrative decentralisation into viable tourism destinations. Identifying one attraction in every district is relatively straightforward; building the roads, accommodation, sanitation, visitor services, activities and marketing ecosystem around it will require sustained investment and coordination.To improve coordination, the BJP government plans to create a cell in every district comprising officials from the district, sub-divisional and block administrations as well as MLAs. The mechanism is intended to bring together departments and elected representatives around individual tourism projects rather than leave them dependent solely on the tourism department.Infrastructure and basic visitor amenities will be another major component of the strategy. The government plans to establish 1,000 tourist amenity centres across the state, particularly at major destinations. The centres are expected to provide drinking water, toilets, short-term resting spaces and facilities for families travelling with infants.The emphasis on basic amenities is significant because the quality of visitor infrastructure can determine whether a potentially attractive destination develops into a sustainable tourism circuit. Ghosh said the government was also considering a CSR-based model for the amenity centres to reduce the burden on the state exchequer.The government is simultaneously seeking to expand Bengal’s tourism economy beyond conventional sightseeing. Ghosh said he had held discussions with representatives of more than 450 destination-wedding agencies, suggesting that weddings, corporate events and experiential tourism could become additional sources of demand outside traditional tourist seasons.The proposed strategy includes experiential stays, showcasing local cuisine and organising large-scale corporate events. The government also plans orientation and skill-development programmes for local MSMEs, indicating an attempt to link tourism promotion with local economic activity rather than treating destinations simply as places for visitors to spend a few hours.The focus on destination weddings is particularly significant because it offers a way of using hotels, heritage properties and local services during periods when conventional leisure tourism may be weaker. But it will also require destinations to meet higher standards of hospitality, connectivity and event infrastructure if Bengal wants to compete with established wedding destinations elsewhere in the country.The government is also looking at the supply side of the tourism economy. A hotel management institution is planned in Siliguri, in Darjeeling district, with the objective of producing trained personnel for the expanding tourism sector. “The institute would help create the trained workforce required in the tourism sector,” Ghosh said.Ghosh also criticised the functioning of the tourism department under the previous Trinamool Congress government, alleging that the department had failed to utilise its budget effectively and that only around 20 per cent of allocated funds had been used. The allegation, if borne out by official expenditure records, points to a problem that goes beyond the number of destinations or schemes: the ability of the government to convert announced allocations into functioning tourism infrastructure.That may ultimately be the central test of the new strategy. Bengal has no shortage of potential attractions—from the Himalayas and forests to the coastline, wetlands, heritage towns, temples, cuisine and cultural traditions. What it has lacked is a consistently integrated system capable of converting these scattered assets into well-connected, professionally managed tourism products.The ‘One District, One Destination’ model attempts to address precisely that gap by pushing responsibility closer to the ground while retaining the tourism department as a coordinating and facilitating agency. Its success, therefore, will depend less on how many destinations are identified and more on what happens after they are identified: whether DPRs are actually prepared, projects completed, amenities maintained, local businesses integrated, skilled workers trained and destinations marketed as coherent experiences.If those pieces fall into place, the policy could help Bengal move from a tourism map dominated by a few familiar names to a more distributed tourism economy. If not, ‘One District, One Destination’ could remain another catalogue of attractions without the infrastructure and institutional machinery needed to turn them into year-round destinations.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Akshita JollyPublished On: Aug 27, 2026 20:20 IST