The two-day roundtable discussion on ‘Developing a Framework for Seamless Tourist Movements to North Eastern States of India’ concluded today at the IIM, Shillong Umsawli campus.
The discussion was organized by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research and Analysis of IIM Shillong, supported by the North Eastern Council.
The topics of the roundtable were Data acquisition of Tourist on Portal, One-point Reference for Tourist Information, One-point Registration Platform for ILP and Data sharing of tourists among NER.
The discussion revolved around some of the crucial elements that hinder tourism growth in north east India, such as infrastructure and connectivity, permit system, lack of people’s cooperation and consciousness, lack of coordination among the stake holders, lack of professional training institutes and shortage of well qualified trainers, absence of trained tourist guides, and other challenges involving policy and administration.
The event aimed at involving the stakeholders, which include government representatives of North Eastern Region (NER) including the commissioners and secretaries of the state tourism department, representatives from NEC, consultants from industry, experts on tourism, academicians and stakeholders actively involved in the hospitality sector of northeast India in the discussion and bringing in the necessary changes in the tourism sector of North East India.
In the discussion many suggestions on building user-friendly portals for tourists, data inclusion, crowd management, training of travel guides, capacity building, participation of community leaders, marketing of tourist destinations, creation of integrated services, entry permits and allied services to all states of northeast India and seamless data exchange came up.
NEC officials suggested partnering with educational institutes like IIM, etc. to create a committee for development of the tourist destinations of the North Eastern Region and achieve rapid and sustainable growth in the region’s tourism industry.
The event was attended by R. Lalrodingi, Adviser (Banking and Industries) along with other officials from NEC, consultants from industry, experts on tourism, academicians and stakeholders actively involved in the hospitality sector of NE India.
