Dimapur, September 27 : Governor PB Acharya asserted that Nagaland can promote tourism in the State by making use of available infrastructure, amenities, etc. while underling the need to encourage more interaction between people of Nagaland and other parts of India.
“Nagaland has rich natural and cultural heritage which can be exploited to promote tourism in the State and create avenues for generating revenue and employment for the youths and the State,” the Governor said in his message on World Tourism today.
Acharya also stressed that people coming from outside the State should be encouraged to avail home stay. “We should promote our tourism potential in a big way by dissemination of natural beauty of the State, flora and fauna and cultural richness of Nagaland through both print and electronic media so as to attract more and more people from within the country and abroad,” he stated.
Calling for having travel planners, he said their contact details should be made available online so that people can contact and plan their tour.
“Tourism is the best way to promote emotional and national integration and also to boost economy.” On the occasion, the Governor appealed to all the stakeholders, NGOs, civil society, etc. to promote tourism in Nagaland to make it the first preferred State for tourism.
Capitalise on eco-tourism: Merentoshi
KOHIMA, SEPTEMBER 27 : MLA & Advisor to Chief Minister, Merentoshi R Jamir has underlined the need to capitalise on eco-tourism and rich bio-diversity of Nagaland in order to increase its capacity to cater to the needs of tourists visiting the State.
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MLA Merentoshi Jamir speaking at World Tourism Day on Tuesday.[/caption]
Merentoshi said this in the context of tourism being seen as one of the biggest industries today and also because of the huge potential of the State in the tourism sector. He was speaking as the chief guest during the World Tourism Day organised by the Department of Tourism under the theme ‘Tourism for all, promoting universal accessibility’ at the conference hall of the Directorate of Tourism today.
Capitalising on these two sectors, he said, would enable the State to go a long way as it is blessed with favourable topography for people to get acclimatised to the climate. The MLA also felt that instead of concentrating on five-star hospitality, emphasis should be made more on eco-friendly hospitality by providing the basic comforts of a hygienic place, food, homely atmosphere, proper toilets etc.
Expressing pride on the increase number of tourists all year round in the recent years, the MLA opined that ‘we should try to build up our villages’ and convert them to tourist villages, saying every village has a history and a story to tell.
In this regard, he felt that if the youth of the villages can be trained in the hospitality sector, the tourists will not be averse to visit even the most interior part of the State.
Another factor, he pointed out, that will increase the tourism industry is peace, while noting that except for one or two stray incidents the State is relatively peaceful today.
Also observing that the many amenity centres are in dilapidated condition across the State, Merentoshi stressed that there is no point constructing unnecessary structures and wasting money. Instead, the department should restructure and rethink on its priorities on ‘eco-friendly resorts and structures’, he stated.
Speaking on the theme ‘Tourism for all, promoting universal accessibility’, he said it was very apt in today’s context while referring to the ‘very selected special friends - the differently-abled’ who most of the time do not have the access as the others.
Stating that accessible tourism market is part of every tourism market, Secretary Tourism, Angau I Thou said, “We must endeavour to make Nagaland accessible to all the tourists in our State.”
Though the State has seen maximum inflow of tourists during the Hornbill Festival at Kisama, Thou said it was not accessible to the people with disabilities. She said it is the endeavour of the department to make Kisama more tourist-friendly so that no person is deprived of the opportunity to experience the rich cultural extravaganza.
Thou said the department must strive to ensure that customer services are monitored and to improve accessibility, knowledge, competences, continual staff training, skills besides following recognised good practices and guidance for tourism accessibility to all.
Additional Director Tourism KT Thomas, who chaired the programme, informed that the result for the logo competition of the department will be declared in a few days time. Earlier, the chief guest also gave away some wheelchairs to some hotels.
