UNESCO recognition helping in foreign tourist influx during Durga Puja
More and more foreign tourists were already coming to see Kolkata’s Durga Pujas for a few years till 2019 due to a lot of promotion, including roadshows and other outreach events, by both the Bengal government and big tourist agencies and agency associations.
To make the festival more interesting, especially for foreign tourists, the government started the Durga Puja Carnival—a procession of the idols of the best Pujas from Kolkata and the surrounding areas, mounted on trailers drawn by trucks, passing through Red Road.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to all tourism across the world. Now, just as the tourism sector was reopening after two years, came the recognition by UNESCO, which inscribed ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritages.
The coming together of these two has helped in bringing in a large number of foreign tourists once again. In fact, the UNESCO recognition is expected to make Durga Puja in Kolkata among the largest cultural events in the world, according to several experts, rivalling the likes of the Rio Festival of Brazil. And a trickle-down effect is expected all across Bengal, where several unique types of Durga Pujas are also held.
Reports a few days back said around 12,000 foreign tourists have already arrived in Kolkata for the festival, and that a few thousand more arrivals are on the anvil. The visitors, the reports said, quoting tourist agencies, are mostly from USA and Europe, and include non-resident Indians (NRIs), mostly Bengalis (‘probashi’ being the popular Bengali word used to describe non-resident Bengalis). Many such probashis are intent on renewing their connections with Bengal, after many years away from home, using the happy occasion of Durga Puja.
A travel agent who handles large numbers of foreign tourists told a media outlet that several writers from Spain, France and Portugal have also arrived, no doubt wanting to see for themselves what the UNESCO recognition was all about. The good words from such arrivals, when they return to their homelands, are expected to lead to larger numbers of tourists in the coming years.
Efforts by the state government like special passes for visiting Durga Puja pandals (by avoiding the normal queues) are also playing a big part.
What everyone connected to tourism have been saying for a long time, though, is that an acute lack of direct flights to Kolkata from important foreign cities is proving to be a hindrance. Most come via Delhi or Kolkata, which entails extra cost; and the demand for Kolkata during this time has resulted in fares from other metro cities surging.
A few months back the state government had urged Delhi to restart direct flights between Kolkata and London. This and other direct flights will help in vastly help in bringing Durga Puja to the world.
