As day four passed, this year’s edition of the Hornbill Festival is considered to have one of the lowest turnout in the last few years. As reported by the officials of the tourism department of the state there weren’t many cancellations by foreign tourists. It is perceived the that the turnout this years from the domestic tourists have greatly decreased. The government may be lucky in some way and all the blame will be on the demonetisation drive and the restriction for cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs that is currently being enforced in the country.
The government was caught unawares and were either at their wits end or were unable to focus just because the government was unable to release the cash as required. The inability of a government department not able to prepare the biggest festival of the state just because it did not have enough cash at its disposal is not convincing enough. However doubts surely arise because when transactions are done through cheques and electronic transfers then the level of accountability improves and makes it more difficult for instances of misuse as every payee is electronically recorded.
The department also did not give much thought on installing EDC machines at the venues for smoother transactions. The EDC machines can be easily operated with a temporary landline connections of the state owned BSNL with data enabled. These days there are also third party vendors that offer wireless EDC/card swiping machines and charges a small percentage in every transaction. Therefore all the participating departments can apply for 2-3 EDC machines linked to a separate account in the name of the department and let the entrepreneurs who have stalls make use of this amenity. The transaction can be tracked with proper vouchers and the money can be given back in the form of cheques or e-transfers by the department. Any entrepreneur that has travelled out of the state in the government sponsored trade fairs and exhibitions specially under department of Industries and Commerce and its allied departments know this process and are not new to it. After the process is in place the government can take a step further by making use of mass media to reassure tourists.
The real problem may have been the financial crunch that the state government is going trough. As accepted by high ranking officials and bank officials though some did unofficially, that the government has no money. The government’s inability to spend on things that matter is noticed in the toned down publicity compared to other years. It is noticeably much lower this year and the media houses also received limited publicity insertions and almost nil in media outside the state whether it is in print media or electronic. Media houses normally do not ask for cash as mode of payment that too especially from the government. The cheaper form of publicity online especially in social media is still unchartered territory for the government of Nagaland .
With already four days elapsed in the 10-day festival, the government is not expected to come up with any corrective measure and the damage is already done. However it is worth pondering that somewhere along the way it seemed the government might have lost focus of why the Hornbill Festival, a festival that is gaining popularity worldwide, is conducted in the first place. The festival should not be taken just as a get together of the citizens of the state alone to have a good time and feel good about it. The priority of gala activities of this scale is and should always be to attract more and more tourists.
