Tourism minister Pramod Kumar will seek help from legislators and district magistrates to compile a comprehensive roadmap for developing the state's tourism potential.

'I would write letters to all the MLAs and MLCs and also the DMs to provide information about important tourist destinations in their respective areas,' the minister said.

It is not possible for the tourism department to gauge the importance of all such places on its own, said a senior department official. 'MLAs and MLCs keep touring their areas. Even the DMs have a very good idea of their respective districts. Hence, the minister suggested that we should use their information for identifying places with tourism potential,' the official added.

The minister's plan got the thumbs-up from at least one Opposition leader. 'I represent Darbhanga teachers' constituency in the Legislative Council and it has voters from Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur and Begusarai districts. Hence, my area is quite large and I would definitely provide details of the places falling in my area which have potential for tourism,' said Madan Mohan Jha, Congress MLC and former minister.

'We intend to work on a long-term plan for using the tourism potential of the state to the hilt,' Pramod Kumar said. 'We are confident there are many places which have not found place in the tourism map of the state till now and the department wants to focus on such places besides adding the best possible amenities at the existing destinations.'

The number of domestic tourists to Bihar has gone up from 21.4 million in 2012 to 28.5 million last year. The number of foreign tourists visiting the state, however, has gone down - from 1.09 million in 2012 to 1.01 million last year.

'We can double the number of tourists in both categories - domestic and foreign - in next five years if the tourism potential is utilised properly,' a tourism department official claimed.

• A version of this report appeared in the e-paper on September 30