The recently concluded workshop on ‘Making North East Tourism Ready’ in New Delhi highlighted the major hurdles of the development of the North Eastern states’ tourism offerings
The Tourism Master Plan for the North Eastern Region, developed by North Eastern Council in consultation with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and state governments from the North Eastern Region, envisages an investment of Rs 6,494 crores over a period of 10 years under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. “TCS has prepared the Tourism Master Plan for the North Eastern Region with an investment proposal of Rs 6494.50 crores to be spent in three phases. Under the proposal, Rs. 3959.53 crores is projected to be invested by the government, while the remaining Rs. 2535.15 crores will be shared by the private sector,” A S Lamba, Secretary, Ministry for the Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER), announced during a workshop on ‘Making North East Tourism Ready’ in New Delhi.
According to Lamba, tourism in the northeast has not realised its potential due to infrastructure bottlenecks and poor marketing. He said the Master Plan could be executed over the next 10 years, depending on availability of funds. Chandan Brahma, Tourism Minister of Assam said, “India needs new tourism destinations, and the region has the potential to be projected as one if its tourism infrastructure improves.” He revealed that the Assam government is coming up with a tourism policy and initiatives such as river taxis and a luxury cruises on the Brahmaputra River. “In addition to improvements in transportation, a lot of PPP projects are being implemented,” he informed, and announced that an International Tourism Mart has been planned in January 2013 where representatives of 20 countries are expected to attend.
Divulging details of the Master Plan, Priya M Varghese, Project Consultant, TCS, said that the northeast accounts for 7.9 per cent of the country’s geographical area, but attracts only 0.9 per cent of domestic and 0.3 per cent of international traffic. She opined that there was a need for unified tourism policy, a unified tourism portal and an e-commerce portal for the region. “It is important to concentrate resources on a few areas to develop these. Growth will filter down to other areas. It is important to prioritise quality”, Varghese added. The Plan recommended an experiential approach which saw, in the first instance, the development of nine major tourism circuits in the region. The TCS report makes a case for looking beyond Kaziranga and Guwahati. The Master Plan highlighted the importance of developing Dibrugarh as the major entry point to develop several circuits in the region. “Mechuka and Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh can be promoted as nature tourism spots. Majuli in Assam has potential for eco-tourism. Loktak Lake in Manipur is famous for its biodiversity and Kangla in the same state is a fortress city,” she said. According to her, there is a need to have internal circuits connecting Bhutan, Bangaldesh, Myanmar and Thailand. She pointed out the poor air and rail connectivity in the region and emphasised the need to harness the tourism potential of the region through planned, growth-oriented and sustainable development of the regional circuits.
“When most of the other states hopped onto the Incredible India bandwagon, none of the north-eastern states did so,” said U K Sangma, Secretary, North Eastern Council (NEC), adding that there was a need for media attention as media coverage can catch the attention of tour operators, who will then drive traffic to the region. He stated that tour operators are extremely important to sell campaigns, so the NEC is studying proposals to educate them about the difference between the eight states that constitute the region.
Laeta Umbrey, President, Association of Tour Operators of North East India, suggested that the tourism circuits be interlinked and planned in the same way as Special Economic Zones are planned. H Das, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Government of Assam, emphasised on time bound implementation of the plan with continuous monitoring by state and central level agencies.
