The tourism department will showcase major destinations in Bihar during an event to be held at Calcutta on Friday to promote Bihar on the tourism map among foreign tourists.

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce has organised the event in which representatives from eastern states have been invited.

Established in 1968, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce works for promoting economic relations between India and the US.

Those in the business of tourism in the US are coming to take part in the event in which the representatives of the states would explain why they (tourist agencies) should promote their destinations.

“Our focus is showcasing all major tourist destinations of Bihar and narrate the importance of these sites and also about the facilities available for visitors at these places so that the players of tourism sector in the US could be convinced for promoting these places among their clients,” a tourism official said.

The official said apart from Unesco heritage sites like Bodhgaya Mahavihara and ruins of the ancient Nalanda university, the department will also showcase the various sites in and around Patna which are of special importance to Sikhs as a large number of Sikhs have settled in the US and Canada.

“We will also showcase the successful organisation of the Prakash Utsav which was organised earlier this year and the facilities for the visitors numbering around one million out of which around 1 lakh were foreign tourists.”

On whether prohibition has affected foreign tourist footfall, an official of the department, said: “When prohibition was imposed last year, we were apprehensive but official figures don’t corroborate such a conception,” he said.

Roadmap

The Bihar government is preparing a new tourism roadmap likely to be approved this month or next month.

Around 900 sites have been identified that will be developed. This includes development of tourist sites falling under Buddhist circuit, Gandhi circuit, Ramayana circuit and Jain circuit and others.

Tourism minister Anita Devi said: “There is a huge potential for development of the tourism sector. Not only will this generate employment on a large scale, it will also usher all-round economic development. We sought reports from all the district magistrates of 38 districts, asking them to furnish the names of the sites falling in their respective districts, which have potential to be developed as tourist sites. We have received the details from all the districts and now we are inspecting those sites before giving a final shape to the roadmap.”

Additional reporting by Nishant Sinha