Kolkata: Tour operators who would usually have their hands full with a little over two months to go before Durga Puja have only started to get queries for travel and that too, only limited to inter-state. Tourists are sceptical about venturing anywhere outside the state in the current COVID-19 situation. "Durga Puja is the time when people would prefer long distance travel by train or flight and would go for a package of at least 7 to 10 days or even more. But this time, people are looking for short tours within Bengal desperately seeking some refreshment from the drudgery. This is a drastic change in the nature of travel which we would associate Durga Puja with, but it is not unusual considering that there is no communication as yet about commencement of train or flight services for facilitating long-distance travel," said Nilanjan Basu, general secretary of Travel Agents Association of Bengal. Queries have come for destinations like Digha, Bakkhali, Jhargram, Mukutmanipur, Bishnupur, Murshidabad etc. However, the tour operators are not yet in a position to book any property for tourists with the state going for lockdown on certain dates and the respective district administrations imposing their own curbs too inorder to fight the spread of Coronavirus. Sandipan Ghosh of Eastern Himalayas Travel & Tour Operators Association that has 350 tour operators on board catering to tourism in North Bengal and eastern states, said there has hardly been any queries for visit in the Hills. "There was initially an announcement that Sikkim will be open for tourists from October 15. But we are not ruling out that restrictions will be extended further as Covid positive cases are on the increase there. In case of Darjeeling too, the situation is not at all rosy and the Gorkha Territorial Administration on its own is going for lockdown. 80 percent travel queries received by us is for Dooars," said Ghosh. He added that people are asking us to suggest places or properties which would be safe for travel. A senior official of the West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation Limited said there has been a few queries of Durga Puja as people are not being able to plan anything in the current situation. Debjit Dutta, Director & CEO of Impression Tourism Services (India) Private Limited, said tourism can only happen when there is mutual trust among tourists and the community of a particular place. "This element has suffered tremendously due to Covid acting as barrier for tourism to kick off," added Dutta.

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