MKT01906 - Darjeeling Tourism: Fact Sheet Analysis

This report presents a fact sheet analyzing the international tourism system in Darjeeling, India. It provides an overview of Darjeeling's characteristics as a tourist destination, including its scenic beauty, tea gardens, and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The report details the number of international and domestic visitors, analyzes visitor growth, and identifies key source markets. It also explores the characteristics of accommodation options available, ranging from hotels and hostels to homestays and luxury lodges. Furthermore, the report examines the economic impact of tourism on Darjeeling's GDP, highlighting job creation, foreign exchange earnings, and infrastructural development. It also lists the main attraction types, including the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Singalila National Park, and various tea estates. The report incorporates relevant graphs and pictures to illustrate key findings and includes references to support the analysis.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SYSTEM
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SYSTEM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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International Tourism
Darjeeling is considered as a city and municipality amongst the state of West Bengal
in India. The city of West Bengal is situated at 6,700 feet or 2,042.2 meters elevation in
Lesser Himalayas. The city is known for various feature, specifically for the scenic beauty,
tea gardens, view of the third largest mountain Kangchenjunga and the popular Darjeeling
Himalaya Railways, which is declared as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The famous
toy-train of Darjeeling was completed during 80s (Wbtourismgov.in 2019). The city
Darjeeling is known as headquarters for the district of Darjeeling, an autonomous status in
West Bengal. It is one of the most widely-known tourist destination of India. The city of
Darjeeling is situated near the foothills of Himalaya. In the past before the independence,
Darjeeling was visited by the elites of British Raj as summer resort.
The city of mountains Darjeeling is famous for tourism. The economy of the city is
dependent on Darjeeling tea industry and tourism. The popularity of Darjeeling as a tourist
destination started by the year 1860. Being a tourist destination, Darjeeling experiences large
inflow of both national and international tourism. The tourism industry of Darjeeling is
dependent on factors like political, economic and geographical. Darjeeling was a prey of
numerous political agitations during 80s and 2000s but rose from the impact from 2012.
Darjeeling experiences around 30,000 international travellers and 6,00,000 national tourists
visits Darjeeling. The tourist inflow increased steadily (Darjeeling-tourism.com 2019).
According to the report of India Today, Darjeeling was the highest Googled tourist
destination amongst all other regions of India. The most popular food options in Darjeeling
are steamed sticky rice and momos. The political instability of Darjeeling could not stop the
growth and development of Darjeeling tourism every year. In the year 2017, 30 percent of
annual businesses amounted to 350 Crore (INR) stimulated from 35000 beds a night capacity
of Darjeeling (Darjeeling.gov.in 2019).

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Fig.: Growth in International tourist of West Bengal
(Source: Wbtourismgov.in 2019)
Fig.: Foreign Exchange Earnings
(Source: Wbtourismgov.in 2019)
The availability of accommodation options includes, hotels, hostels, apartments, bed
& breakfasts, holiday homes, homestays, campgrounds, luxury lodges, lodges and boutique
hotels. Darjeeling offers a wide range of accommodation option with price ranges addressing
the needs and preferences of all king of travellers with minimum and premium budget. The
characteristics of the hotels will offer the view of the scenic beauty of Kangchenjunga and the
foothills of mountains. The characteristics of the homestay offers the taste of social and
cultural practices of Darjeeling. Hostels of Darjeeling will be targeted for the students and
solo travellers or ‘bag packers’ with minimum budget. The luxury stays will address the

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preferences of premium customers. Campgrounds will reflect the feature of being connected
with the nature in literal sense.
The tourism activities of Darjeeling exerts both positive and negative impact over the
city. In terms of the economic impact from the tourism industry in Darjeeling, tourism
develops job opportunities and the price of land. Tourism majorly stimulates the foreign
exchange values in Darjeeling (Tourism-of-india.com 2019). The security and monetary flow
of the city improves during the peak season in Darjeeling. The infrastructural development is
another impact of tourism application. Tourism sector of Darjeeling stimulates seasonality of
the income of the local businesses.
There are numerous attraction sites in Darjeeling including, Darjeeling Himalayan
Railway, Singalila National Park, Padma Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Tiger Hill,
Observatory Hill, Batasia Loop, Happy Valley Tea Estate, Joey’s Pub, Japanese Peace
Pagoda, Neora Valley National Park.
The kind of businesses in Darjeeling ranges from hotel, hospitality, transportation, tea
businesses and tourism. The economy of Darjeeling is concentrated on three Ts, Tea,
Tourism and Transport (Darjeelingonline.in 2019). Among the three industries, tourism is
accepted as the major source of income in Darjeeling (Darjeelingonline.in 2019). Tourism
contributes to the economy of Darjeeling in different forms, through accommodation needs,
transportation needs, hospitality requirements, food and lodging needs, buying mementos and
local artefacts from local artisans and craftsmen. The transport and tourism industry of
Darjeeling complements each other as tourism helps in stimulating job opportunities in the
transport industry and transport industry attract tourists from around the world
(Darjeelingonline.in 2019). Tea business is also connected with the tourism industries as the
tea gardens and the operational process in the tea processing units are considered as tourists’
attraction in Darjeeling. Tea industry is befitted by the tourism industry through the sales

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stimulated by tourist inflow. The three Ts of Darjeeling are interconnected as serves value for
addressing and attracting tourism inflow in the city.

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References:
Darjeeling.gov.in 2019. Darjeeling. [Online] Available at:
http://www.darjeeling.gov.in/tourism.html
Darjeelingonline.in 2019. Business and Economy in Darjeeling, Industries in Darjeeling.
[Online] Available at: https://www.darjeelingonline.in/city-guide/business-and-economy-in-
darjeeling
Darjeeling-tourism.com 2019. Darjeeling Tourism. [Online] Available at:
https://www.darjeeling-tourism.com/
Tourism-of-india.com 2019. Tourism in Darjeeling | Things to do in West Bengal. [Online]
Available at: https://www.tourism-of-india.com/darjeeling.html
Wbtourismgov.in 2019. WEST BENGAL TOURISM. [Online] Available at:
https://wbtourismgov.in/

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Picture gallery Darjeeling Tourism
(Darjeeling Himalayan Railway)
(Padma Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park)
(Tiger Hill)

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(Observatory Hill)
(Batasia Loop)

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(Happy Valley Tea Estate)
(Japanese Peace Pagoda)

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(Neora Valley National Park)