World Tourism Day Festival & Regional Tourism Awards

We are back again with World Tourism Day celebrations, which we at ACT began in 2002 at Siliguri. Since then, the organization has grown and the concept of Khangchendzonga Region International Ecotourism Park (KRIEP) launched then, is today a dream come true, where we have our actions in North Bengal, Sikkim, Eastern Nepal, Northern Bangladesh and Bhutan. The region is popularly known as East Himalaya. There are on date 09 established rural tourism circuits in Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars of North Bengal, an active group of Sikkim volunteers working in all the 04 districts, a strong Eastern Nepal connect, a link with Bhutan through the Indo-Bhutan Friendship Association and a strong presence in Northern Bangladesh through the Paharpur World Heritage Site initiative.

As 27th of September is the World Tourism Day and is being celebrated by all the ACT volunteers and units across the KRIEP region, the central celebration at Siliguri is being organized by the members on the 3rd and 4th of October, 2015 as World Tourism Day Festival 2015 at City Centre. This is being added by the most interesting and first of its kind of regional action, The Sikkim-Darjeeling-Dooars Regional Tourism Awards 2015 being given in 09 categories covering 14 awardees. The festival will cover:

1. Photo Exhibition. This is open to photo journalists only with the vision that every day when we see and appreciate a photo in the news daily or magazine, we often do not recognize the photographer. Through this competition, we shall not only bring recognization to the photographer, but also bring recognization to region through their photographs.
2. International Ethnic Fashion Show. Most of the time, we overlook the handloom and ethnic fabric of the region, which has the capability of evolving into a major tourism product. This rural skill, combined with undermined rural livelihood is brought into main stage by renowned designers and models from the region.
3. Story Writing on the WTD theme: One Billion Tourists, One Billion Opportunities. As per the Secretary General of United Nations, this year’s WTD highlights the global potential of tourism for socio-economic development. With more than 01 billion international tourists travelling the world each year, tourism has become a powerful and transformative force that is making a genuine difference in the lives of millions of people.
4. Sanskriti Organic Haat: Eat locally, there are still rural level agricultural practices who maintain their tradition of their culture with nature. We want the tourism industry to adopt such deep rooted responsible practices, specially with food, which is the most popular tourism product. Let them confirm their visitors a good health with good taste. This will help to conserve the traditional rural practices.
5. Bollywood Dance Workshop: One of the greatest attraction for the International visitor to India is Bollywood. Equally important is Bollywood for the domestic traveller from India. To make the WTD Festival 2015 attractive, India’s one of the most famous Dance master, who have done Bollywood and couple dance workshops with hundreds of corporate, schools, film and television artists and runs a few dance schools in the capital Delhi will be engaging the visitors to the festival in her workshop on both days. Through this, she will also highlight about the Indian folk dances and how the same has been made popular by Bollywood in a fusion.
6. Rural Tourism Exhibition: The 02 days festival and a publication for the event will highlight the homestay movement and rural tourism of the region.
7. Sit & Draw and Digital Poster Making competition: To engage students and professionals alike in this festival, there will be live Sit & Draw competition based on the region of East Himalaya and also an online competition will be held as Digital Poster Making based on the same theme of Eastern Himalaya, Nature-People-Culture.