The north-eastern states of India, including Nagaland have been touted as potential tourist hotspots, citing the region’s rich biodiversity, picturesque landscape and hospitable inhabitants. Despite rapid urbanisation and deforestation, the region is less affected by human civilisation compared to other parts of the country, making it one of the favoured destinations for tourists. Yes, the region has received lots of traction from fellow Indians from other states too as internet revolution has made the land-locked area more visible today. However, for most states, it’s a long way to go before tourism becomes an industry. The inflow of tourists – both domestic and foreign – appears to be gradually increasing over the last few years but not up to the expectations. The pace of growth in tourism is much slower than what most Union ministers and government officials, who visit the region, picture. On top of that, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has badly affected tourism due to travel restrictions imposed by countries and states and villages as measure to curb the spread of the disease. The industry was perhaps the worst affected sector. India’s chicken neck has been strangled for more than a year now with the pandemic disrupting the inflow of tourists to the region.
In Nagaland too, the number of tourists dropped drastically last year amid the health crisis, forcing the industry to come to a standstill. After witnessing a consistent rise in the flow of tourists to the state since 2010, the number of domestic visitors dropped from 1,25,949 in 2019 to just 10,979 in 2020, while foreign tourists dipped from 5568 in 2019 to 518 in 2020. This is a huge fall, indicating that the pandemic had undone years of gain the state had made in tourism. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with various countries beginning to ease travel restrictions for both international and domestic visitors. In an attempt to open tourism window, the government of Nagaland too has allowed fully vaccinated travellers to visit the state and allowed pre-booking of hotels and other facilities. It is to be seen if the move will revive the industry, but there are possibilities of a surge in the number of travellers in the next few months as people have been confined to their homes for months. From this perspective, the state’s upcoming 10-day Hornbill Festival, if celebrated and the situation allows, could attract tourists who have been longing to breathe fresh air and get closure to nature.
Interestingly, the Hornbill Festival is the main attraction for tourists in Nagaland. As many as 55,584 domestic visitors to the state in 2019 were during this festival, as against nearly 1.26 lakh of them recorded during the whole year, while foreign tourists who attended the festival were 3015, which was more than half the total number (5568) recorded in the year. This uneven flow of tourists indicates that tourism in the state is still at a very nascent stage and requires lots of attention and investment to fully develop. The state, or the Northeast for that matter, should give the tourists a reason to visit the region any time of the year and not just during festive season. To make the region a tourist destination, the Centre too should provide basic facilities like all-weather road and uninterrupted internet access. Just highlighting the tourism potential of the region won’t help.