The Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) has expressed concern that rural tourism operators will be devastated with a prolonged shut down of the state following the Mukroh massacre.
While condemning the incident that resulted in the deaths of six people on Tuesday, expressing solidarity with the people of Mukroh and urging Assam and Meghalaya to resolve the border issues between the two states expeditiously, the MTDF urged protesting groups “to refrain from taking up any activities that would aggravate the situation, thus affecting tourism and other allied activities associated with it.”
The MTDF’s rural tourism committee chairman, Aiban S Mawkhroh, said that recent “untoward incidents in Shillong” following Tuesday’s shooting, “has seriously affected our partners working in the rural tourism industry, like homestay owners, local entrepreneurs at camping sites, local transporters and small businesses at tourism sites”.
Tourist numbers have plummeted in the last few days, with many who had plans of visiting Meghalaya cancelling and those already present in the state bringing a premature end to their travels.
“There has already been a major loss during the two years of Covid and such disturbances would greatly affect our brethren in the rural areas who have invested in rural tourism activities,” Mawkhroh said. “Meghalaya has already earned a name as a much-favored tourism destination in the last year and any unnecessary disturbances shall take a long time to recover the brand name again. We urge the NGOs to therefore allow the lawful processes to take their course before resorting to any forms of protest that would affect the livelihoods of our fellow citizens in the rural areas, especially those engaged in daily earnings from tourism.”
He also requested the state’s Tourism Department to provide a hotline to facilitate any assistance that tourists visiting the state require.
