Kolkata, June 11 (IANS) Amid Corona scare, the tourism sector in West Bengal is slowly opening up to tourists as the state tourism department has decided to throw open accommodations partially to visitors.

About 30 per cent of the total hotel accommodations in the state's popular coastal tourism hub in East Midnapore's Digha resumed operation on Thursday.

On the other hand, another tourism hotspot Sunderbans, which is known to be the world's largest mangrove swamp and a UNESCO World Heritage site, will open its doors to tourists from June 15.

"We are slowly trying to resume tourism operations in various tourist destinations across the state maintaining necessary COVID-19 guidelines. If the rates of Corona pandemic gets arrested we can expect good business from the tourism sector in the coming festive spell from October-November this year," State Tourism Minister Gautam Deb said.

The minister said that people are now suffering from a reduced cash flow and as a result of which the tourism industry is also incurring huge losses.

"We are slowly trying to resume operations in various tourism circuits but in phases," Deb said.

--IANS sbn/sdr/