The authorities in India’s northeast region are contriving a master plan for expanding its tourism industry. The plan might bring rewarding deals for the northeastern states by luring more number of travellers to book flights to India connecting the region.
The relatively unexplored north-eastern part of India is keen to keep the ball rolling for India’s tourism industry and has plans to implement an exclusive master plan to boost its tourism sector.
Northeast India usually refers to the easternmost region of India that consists of Seven Sister States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) and Sikkim. Eco-tourism, culture and religion are the highlights of the place and are likely to act as crowd pullers for the region and entice holiday makers to look for tickets on cheap flights to India and land up here for a vacation break.
India’s Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) has taken the initiative to introduce the master plan and is planning to communicate the same to the ministry of tourism and respective state governments to implement it.
The North Eastern Council (NEC), a nodal organization for economic and social development of northeastern states like Sikkim has contrived the comprehensive master plan in alliance with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The recommendations in the master plan will be enforced in the ongoing 12th Five Year Plan period, say media reports.
Union DoNER Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar was quoted in online sources as saying, “We are in touch with the ministry of tourism and respective state governments on how to go about exploiting the tourism potential of the northeast. We are also looking at exploring tourism circuits in the region.”
As per the data of the Union Ministry of Tourism, the number of international travellers taking flights to India and visiting the north-eastern region has grown by 6.9% in the last few years whereas the number of domestic tourist in the region has shown a growth of 8.09% in 2010.
Currently, Sikkim is leading the race of tourism in the northeast India. In fact, Sikkim’s tourism sector has sprung up as an inspiration for underdeveloped tour and travel sector in other northeastern Indian states.