Foreigners Visit West Bengal | Business | Sarthak Ahuja

Foreign tourists are now rushing to one place in India - which has beaten all of Agra, Udaipur, Rishikesh, Hampi, and even Goa... It’s become the second most visited place after Maharashtra by foreign tourists despite having no direct flight into it... In 2024, this state had over 3 Million foreign visitors, out of which the highest were from the US, then Russia, UK and Italy... It had almost double the number of international tourists compared to Goa and Kerala, combined! And this state is West Bengal. As per the India Tourism Data Compendium 2025 released by the Union Ministry of Tourism, the state received 3.1 million international visitors in 2024, marking a ~15% increase from the previous year. But why are foreigners suddenly interested in West Bengal... One of the biggest contributors is Durga Puja being recognized by UNESCO as the first festival from India to get the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity tag... That combined with spiritual tourism, and access to the sea, the hills and remains of old British culture... the most visited cities have been Darjeeling, Sundarbans, and Siliguri after Kolkata. Tea Estate Tourism has been another big boost to the state... and now the largest of 5 star chains are opening hotels in these tier 2 and 3 cities of West Bengal to capture the economy... Mayfair, Taj... In fact, IHCL has signed an agreement with Ambuja to open 15 new hotels in the coming years, out of which a majority would be in West Bengal, Sikkim and the North Eastern states, along with a few in Himachal. We might see a big boom in hospitality and real estate related to travel and tourism in this geography in the coming 2-3 years. About time the infrastructure, pollution and cleanliness concerns are resolved at the earliest, lest we lose the steam that’s building in our favour. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like, Share, Subscribe for more! Follow me on my other social media handles for all updates, events and live sessions- Instagram:casarthakahuja LinkedIn: sarthak-ahuja Website: http://www.casarthakahuja.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Chartered Accountant with about 10 years of experience in areas of Tax Advisory, Startup Consulting, Fundraising, Audits, Deal Advisory, Business Modelling and contract CFO services. Winner of the ISB Young Leader Award 2017 and the Best All Rounder, PGP Class of '17, Sarthak has also been published about in the leading financial newspapers such as The Financial Express as possibly the youngest Indian to have completed the courses of CA, CS and CMA along with a graduate degree in Financial & Investment Analysis from University of Delhi, all by the age of 23 years.