Air India helps boost tourism in Bihar

Patna, Aug 11: In an effort to give a fillip to Bihar's moribund tourism industry, national carrier Air India has extended its helping hand by introducing a special on-flight film show on various tourist spots and other attractions of the state.

As part of the unique initiative, Air India has recently started showing in all its daily New Delhi-New York Boeing 747 flights a brief 15-minute colour film showcasing all popular tourist spots in Bihar along with the state's wide range of cuisine, festivals, music and handicraft products to woo more and more visitors,sources at the Bihar Tourism department informed here today.

Claiming that the initiative had already started paying off,the sources said encouraged by the initial response Air India was now considering to introduce similar show on all its Delhi-Los Angeles and Mumbai-New York flights too,soon.

Moreover, the sources informed that in order to make the foreign travellers more aware about the rich cultural heritage of Bihar, the National carrier had decorated inside of some of its long-haul aircraft with colourful Madhubani paintings.

This had also generated a lot of curiocity amomg the India bound travellors,the sources confirmed.

Elaborating other plans to boost tourism in the state, particularly surrounding the famous Buddhist circuit comprising Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Rajgir and Vaishali, the sources said another film on Bihar tourism was being prepared by the department showcasing various other unknown but very attractive tourist spots in the state.

A Mumbai based film unit had already been entrusted with the job and the film was likely to be ready before the festive season in October, the sources said adding that the film might also be shown to India bound passengers in other international flights too.

Describing the film of Bihar tourism and culture had already opened a new vista in terms of creating awarness about the richness of the eastern state among the foreign travellers, the sources hoped that the number of tourist inflow to Bihar was all set to increase manifold in the coming years following the new intitiative.

All out efforts were also being made simultaneously by the state government to improve the infrastructural facilities to world standard by constructing good accomodation and other facilities for foreigners as well as domestic visitors in all tourist spots.

UNI