JN Mahanta
Everyone maintains that in the Northeast, tourism industry has vast potential to create employment opportunity and economic bonanza for the region. In the practical sense, any region thriving on tourism earns basically from four counts and these are accommodation, transport, restaurants/eating joints with ethnic flavour, and the shopping spree of the tourists. In all the places of tourist attraction, one finds a number of hotels, restaurants, roadside vendors, souvenir stalls and fleets of transport vehicles.
For a place to attract tourists, the primary infrastructure will need to be created by the State government. A good connecting road from the nearest airport or railway station cannot be made by an entrepreneur. This has to be done by the government. Likewise, it is the government that will have to provide electricity, water and security — the three most vital aspects for sustainable tourism. The local people (the entrepreneur) cannot provide these most essential requirements on their own.
Assam has vast potential for a mega-sized tourism industry. Lately, the Government of Assam has taken many positive steps to boost tourism in the State. A few examples are Elephant Mahotsav at KNP, incentives for tourism industry in NEIIPP-2007, renovation works in many historical sites, developmental works in Manas sanctuary/KNP/Pobitara etc, and the latest being the State Tourism Policy unveiled on February 25 last.
There are many places, monuments, temples, lakes, and reserve forests which are capable of attracting tourists to the State in a big way. These sites would require attention of the government departments — renovation of the sites as well as good linking roads would be required for drawing tourists. Guwahati being the principal point of entry to the Northeast, Assam may take advantage of this situation to enhance its tourism potential by including all the colourful places of the other States in the tourist’s itinerary.
The other two very important aspects which will contribute immensely to development of tourism industry are publicity and marketing. Hardly anyone outside Assam has heard about Rang Ghar, Kareng Ghar, Talatol Ghar, Hajo-Poa Mecca, Garampani, Dibru-Saikhowa or can imagine the beauty of the sun setting in the mighty Brahmaputra. The itinerary of a tourist from outside Assam or abroad will include only Guwahati-Shillong-Cherrapunji and Guwahati-Kaziranga. Marketing of the tourist spots has never been done in a systematic manner. The Government of Assam has got quite competent departments and agencies for this job. Basically, the job consists of three steps: identification of all the probable tourist spots, preparation of brief colourful write-ups on each site with attractive photographs, and widespread publicity through all available channels. The channels may include travel journals, newspapers, electronic media, tie-up with agencies within the country and abroad, Assam Houses in all the State capitals, and through the State tourism websites.
It may be mentioned here that in every issue of in-flight magazines of all airlines, one finds articles on 10-12 places of tourist attraction within the country as well as abroad. But till date not a single article has featured any place in Assam other than Kaziranga National Park and Kamakhya Temple. The Indian Oil Corporation (Assam Oil Division) had brought out an article on Digboi Refinery on the occasion of its centenary celebration in January, 2002 in Sahara’s in-flight magazine. Steps should be taken to publish authoritative articles on all the identified sites and tourism potential activities (like rafting, angling, trekking, golf, eco-tourism, tea tourism etc) in the national dailies. The government may seek help from experts in the field.
In the recently released State Tourism Policy-2008, plans have been mooted for a systematic approach towards the development of tourism industry in the State. The schemes and action plans have been briefly defined in the policy. In order to implement the policy in letter and spirit, a lot needs to be done, and since the policy covers the period till 2013 only, actions need to be taken on a war footing. The government should immediately come up with a list of places which will be eligible for subsidies offered under the policy, so that potential investors and entrepreneurs may then carry out feasibility surveys for the facilities intended to be developed at these sites. The government should also assure the investors that the subsidies will not be withdrawn before the expiry of the period notified in the policy. Without such an assurance the investors may not be willing to come forward. This is an important factor for the potential investor.
There is no reason why tourism cannot happen as an industry in Assam. What we need is a mix of right vision and planning.
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