The Himal World Desk
Siliguri, Sept. 22: The three-day Kanchenjunga Tourism Festival will be held at the City Centre here from September 27 to September 29 with a potpourri of events celebrating the culture, cuisine and music of the region and neighbouring countries.
As a precursor to the mega event, the members of the organizing committee held an interactive session with the media at the GOAT Sports Arena here on Saturday where the members from the fourth estate made a number of suggestions to streamline the tourism-related activities that are held at various parts of the region in different times of the year and make them more structured.
Football legend Bhaichung Bhutia, who presided over the meeting, said the Kanchenjunga Tourism Festival had the potential to become as popular as the celebrated events of the north-eastern states like the Cherry Blossom Festival of Meghalaya, Hornbill Festival of Nagaland and Ziro Music Festival of Arunachal Pradesh.
Bhutia said because of the proximity of Siliguri with the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, the festival could become an international event. He said the theme of this year’s festival was “peace and sustainability” which were necessary to make tourism a viable proposition in the region.
In fact, the festival will celebrate the second day as Nepal Day and the last day as Bhutan Day to lend an international flavour to the event. Raj Basu, the convener of ACT and the brain behind the festival, said the first day would be celebrated as World Tourism Day.
Karan Bajla, the coordinator of the Kanchenjunga Food Awards, said the awards to honour and recognize the entrepreneurs in the food industry were being constituted for the first time and five awards would be given to iconic eateries that have been running for three generations or more and nine other awards in different categories would given to restaurants as part of the festival.
