Tuesday, May 31, 2022
The negative response of Bhutan about not opening its doors to tourists has affected tourism in eastern Dooars adversely.
Some tourists are still coming to Jaldapara forest area, while tour operators and resorts in Buxa and Chilapata that used to attract good number of tourists in summers before Covid-19, have got hardly any business in this year’s summer as tourists don’t seem to be quite interested in exploring these forests only minus Bhutan as the place played an integral role in the tour itinerary.
The eastern Dooars between April and June in 2019 drew 1.5 lakh tourists. Either before or after their Dooars’ visit, all of these tourists had travelled to Bhutan. In the Dooars, at an average spending of Rs 3,000 daily for two days, the collective spending of the tourists in these three months are roughly Rs 70 crore.
As the Himalayan Kingdom has still kept its borders shut, those who did the circuit have stopped coming to Dooars. However, in the western Dooars, businesses have picked up momentum with tourists pouring in Gorumara and Chapramari along with Sikkim and Darjeeling.
As Bhutan has shut down its borders till now, it has served a major blow to the tourism of Dooars particularly at a time when this fllodplain area was making its presence felt in the worldwide.
In March 2020, when Bhutan closed its doors for all international tourists, Dooars had suffered horribly, mainly the eastern part.
Tags: Asia, Asia Tourism, Bhutan, Bhutan News, West Bengal
