Kolkata: There has been a big filip for the West Bengal tourism department with 18 crore tourists visiting the state within a year.
These numbers have set a new record for the state, informed Indranil Sen, the State Tourism Minister. New tourism destinations like Khairabera and Muruguma have come up in a short time and climbed the popularity charts, he added.
Purulia has emerged as a popular tourist destination with several local spots coming up.
The focus remains on religious circuit tourism in 400 religious spots across the state. These spots include religious tourist destinations spread across Shantiniketan, Hooghly, Jhargram and North Bengal.
The government has built a large Jagannath Temple in Digha which is going to be inaugurated in April this year.
West Bengal is also topping the country in the number of homestays. The 5,322 operating homestays have given a tremendous boost to the tourism sector. A homestay portal will soon be coming up on the tourism website to provide all relevant information.
Another 3,755 new homestay proposals have been received by the state government.
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