Along with agriculture and industry, tourism also plays an important role in the development of a region. Tourism industry is the world's largest service sector. Patharchapuri is a important tourist spot in Birbhum district as well as in West Bengal. It is especially Islam religion oriented tourist spot where numerous people come from different parts of West Bengal and from neighbor states. The main attraction of the tourists is the famous ‘Patharchapuri fair’, eight day duration fair held on the occasion of death anniversary of ‘Sufi Saint’ called ‘Data Baba’. Huge numbers of tourists beyond religion come to visit the ‘Darga’ of ‘Data Baba’ throughout the year. Tourism industry in Patharchapuri plays an important part in transforming the existing socio-economic structure of the region and at the same time huge pressure of the tourists also put some environmental challenges. In this paper emphasis has been given to find out the existing pattern of tourism industry in Patharchapuri.
Tourism industry, Service sector, Sufi Saint, Darga, Religion, Environmental challenges
