Union tourism minister Mrs Ambika Soni
today announced that separate hotel management institutes
would be established in all the North-eastern states if these
states agree to contribute five acres of land to boost tourism.
Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day North-East
Council (NEC) summit on tourism and hospitality here today,
Mrs Soni, said: "We have the permission from the Centre
to allot Rs 25 crores for destination development and Rs 50
crores for circuit development to the N-E states." She
urged the N-E states to get in touch with the World Heritage
Society for listing their historical sites in the world heritage
list.
Deferring from the earlier thrust on mass tourism, Mrs Soni
called for development of sustainable and eco-friendly tourism
on the lines of Bhutan tourism. "We have to develop new
products and cultural tourism would be a step in the right
direction," she said.
Mrs Soni added that tourism was put in the backburner in the
country in the past. However, the mindsets have changed as
tourism is now the largest employment generating industry
in the country, she said. According to her, IT sector caters
only to the educated and computer savvy people while tourism
embraces the rural masses too.
Union Minister for NEC, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyer, Governors of
Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and chief ministers of Nagaland,
Mizoram and Sikkim attended the inaugural day of the summit
today.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Aiyer outlined four plans to
boost tourism in the N-E states. Firstly, the states should
plan tourism for themselves as problems vary from one state
to another, he said. Promotion of multi tourism encounter
between N-E states and eastern India was the second concentric
centre of the Union minister.
The third step to boost tourism is to have three or four packages
where the tourists visit all the eight N-E states, he added.
The fourth measure is linking tourism with the neigbhouring
countries, such as Bhutan and Nepal, he said. "One day,
Sikkim would link tourism with Tibet and if that were to happen,
it would be a gateway to Shangri-la," the minister, added.
"We need to focus on domestic markets to boost tourism,"
Mr Aiyer, said. He informed that the connectivity issues of
N-E states are being addressed as over Rs 50,000 crore is
likely to be invested for this purpose.
Courtesy: The Statesman |
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