Darjeeling, India: A Travel Booklet for HAT201 Tourism Course

This report is a travel booklet focusing on Darjeeling, a popular tourist destination located in the northern part of West Bengal, India. The booklet provides a comprehensive overview of Darjeeling, highlighting its rich tourism culture and picturesque location in the Himalayas. It details the main attractions, including the scenic beauty of Mount Kanchenjunga, the Darjeeling Mall, and the unique experience of the toy train. The report also covers amenities such as accommodation, food and beverage options, and shopping opportunities, including Darjeeling tea and Tibetan antiques. Furthermore, it describes access to Darjeeling via air, train, and bus services, as well as ancillary services provided by the government and local authorities to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for tourists. The booklet uses the 'amalgam' concept to analyze the destination, exploring attractions, amenities, access, and ancillary services to provide a complete picture of Darjeeling as a tourist destination.

An introduction to hospitality and tourism –
Tourist Booklet – Darjeeling, West Bengal,
India
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Introduction
Darjeeling is situated in the northern part of West Bengal, India. This place is of rich culture of
tourism since colonial era. Darjeeling is placed on the top of Himalayan hills of eastern India
with the altitude of 2042 meters. With its splendid and picturesque location, this place is named
as Queen of Hills. Darjeeling is accessible from different parts of India by air, train and buses. A
week stay at Darjeeling can refresh mind with the natural beauty of the Himalayas and the lovely
scenic beauty of Mount Kanchenjunga. (Tourism, n.d)
AMALGAM
Attractions
The main attractions of this tourist spot are its location and surrounding beauties of nature.
Although this place is known since last century due to its lovely natural beauties, presently the
place is well equipped with other form of tourist attractions like toy train riding, mountaineering
expedition, shopping and other general attractions prevalent in any customized tourist spot.
Specific attractions of Darjeeling are its Mall, where people can spend good time watching the
famous Kanchenjunga peak and Mahakal temple. Lovely experiences of Christmas and New
Year celebration are other attractions of this tourist spot with snow fall being experienced, if the
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climate allows so. So the attractions are of multi-dimensional in the form of natural, artificial
and events for Darjeeling to satisfy the need of the tourists. (Travels, n.d)
Amenities
Darjeeling provides different amenities of tourist spot in the form of accommodation, food and
beverages, and retailing and other services. Accommodation facilities include different level of
hotels, home stays and lodges. The hotels at Darjeeling are ranging from high budget to standard
budget hotels. Recent trend of tourism introduces home stay concept with bread and breakfast;
and this facilities are also available with the cordial and warm treatment of the hosts. (airbnb,
n.d) The hotels nearby malls are costly, where as the hotels from adjacent places may prove
pocket friendly for the tourists. The food and beverages services are available in different ways
to serve the taste of national and international tourists. The culinary services available in
Darjeeling can give experience of colonial British delicacies in the Keventer’s and Glenary’s
while there are many Chinese restaurants to give the tourist of authentic Chinese delicacies.
Apart from those, other food chain restaurants are also available to satisfy taste of the tourists.
The shopping experience at Darjeeling proves it’s worth retailing of different local products and
woolen garments. Special attraction of shopping includes Darjeeling tea and Tibetan antiques
available in the shops of the mall. (Advisor, n.d)
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Access
Access to Darjeeling is well organized through air, train and bus services from different parts of
India. Bagdogra is the nearby airport situated near Siliguri town, which has different air services
from other parts of India. For train services, nearest station is New Jalpaiguri and for bus services
nearest bus terminus is at Siliguri. From these places, Darjeeling is connected by cars and buses.
There are scenic travelling by driving available from Darjeeling to Kalimpong, West Bengal and
Gangtok, Sikkim. There are different amusement parks in the form of zoo, Himalayan
Mountaineering Institute, GangaSagar park, Batasia Loop, etc. The joy rides are there in the form
of century-old toy train facilities to enjoy the route and different other tourist spots of interest in
the route like Buddhist Monasteries. (Anuradha, 2018) An innovative vehicle in the form of
ropeway runs within Darjeeling for enjoying the picturesque sceneries of tea garden and far
visibility of the Himalayas. Apart from these, there is scope of pony-riding available in the Mall
of Darjeeling to have a round trip watching Governor’s House and other places of interest visible
within the route. (gotirupati, n.d)
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Ancillary Services
This tourist spot has well acceptance in national and international tourist community. The state
government of West Bengal with the assistance of Gorkhaland Territorial Authority is
maintaining this place to attract more tourists from different parts of world. The DMOs are
active with their reach to the tourists through social media and print media. Main jobs performed
by government and local authorities are building and maintenance of infrastructure necessary for
tourism industry, ensuring law and order situation and looking after the environmental balance of
the region. An experienced team of professionals always work on these issues to ensure safety
and security to the tourists, provide them with the best possible infrastructural facilities and
assuring of environment maintenance through mass awareness programs within the local people
and the tourists of Darjeeling with the special slogan to avoid Plastic. As the law and order
situation of this place is normally peaceful, tourists can travel this place with peace of mind and
enjoy the beauty of the Queen of Hills, Darjeeling.
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References:
Advisor, T., n.d. Restaurants in Dajeeling. [Online] Available at: https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurants-
g304557-Darjeeling_Darjeeling_District_West_Bengal.html [Accessed 5 August 2019].
airbnb, n.d. Find places to stay in Darjeeling on Airbnb. [Online] Available at:
https://www.airbnb.co.in/a/Darjeeling--West-Bengal--India?
af=&c=.pi0.pk63448687190_295626457919_c_30395264858&sem_position=1t1&sem_target=kwd-
30395264858&location_of_interest=&location_physical=9061804&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhJrqBRDZARIsALhp1
WSjY_Lj0-vpXWuI_aN5pQS [Accessed 5 August 2019].
Anuradha, 2018. 7 Reasons Why You Must Take The Toy Train Ride To Darjeeling. [Online] Available at:
https://lbb.in/kolkata/toy-train-ride-darjeeling/ [Accessed 5 August 2019].
gotirupati, n.d. Darjeeling Ropeway. [Online] Available at: https://gotirupati.com/darjeeling-ropeway/
[Accessed 5 August 2019].
Tourism, D., n.d. Darjeeling Toursim- Informations. [Online] Available at: The culinary services available
in Darjeeling can give experience of colonial British delicacies in the Keventer’s and Glenary’s while there
are many Chinese restaurants to give the tourist of authentic Chinese delicacies. Apart from that other
food chai [Accessed 5 August 2019].
Travels, T.I., n.d. Top 10 Places to visit in Darjeeling. [Online] Available at:
http://www.transindiatravels.com/west-bengal/darjeeling/tourist-places-to-visit-in-darjeeling/
[Accessed 5 Auguat 2019].
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