Survival to Revival: North-East set to lead tourism rebound in India in the New Year

The eight states of the North-East have come together to give a push to tourism in the region in the New Year

The Dima Hasao Autonomous Council is busy giving final touches to plans to welcome tourists to the hill district of Assam in the New Year. A new entrant to the North-East region's tourism map, the Dima Hasao district is an eye-catching destination ideal for trekking, rafting, zip lining and rock climbing. Haflong, the district headquarters, is Assam's only hill station.

"Only the locals participated in our festivals organised after the restrictions were lifted. In the New Year, we will be welcoming visitors from outside the state and rest of the country," says Jonola Bathari, an official at the tourism department of Dima Hasao Autonomous Council. Those festivals include the annual Falcon Festival held in November in Umrangso and the Judima Festival, held this year in Gunjung, a paragliding centre near Haflong, in December.

Aided by its stunningly diverse culture and landscape, the North-East region comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura is hoping the tourism sector (hit hard by a global pandemic) would switch gears in 2021. "The survival time is over and we are now on revival mode," beams E B Blah, president, North East India Tourism Confederation (NEITO).

In December, the government and private sector officials from the region who came together at the eighth edition of North East Festival held in Assam's capital Guwahati talked up its tourism potential. "Post-pandemic, the North-East has a great role to play in India's recovery," said Jitendra Singh, who heads the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, in an online speech from New Delhi at the North East Festival held as a hybrid edition during December 19-20.

Industry leaders, from Assam's tribal-dominated Dima Hasao to the nature-endowed Chandel in Manipur, are eager to kickstart a delayed tourism season in the North-East. While Nagaland is closed to tourists, all other states in the region are allowing visitors, some of them like Manipur without COVID-negative tests. "The focus of the North-East Festival is to assemble the stakeholders to launch the tourism season," says Shyamkanu Mahanta, a cultural entrepreneur and promoter of Delhi's North East Festival and the popular Rangali cultural event in Guwahati.

Several factors are in favour of the North-East leading the country's tourism revival. Firstly, the entire region is seen by visitors as "one destination" allowing them to travel between states, instead of staying back in one. Secondly, the region's geography and less-crowded towns and destinations help maintain the "new normal". Lastly and importantly, the resilience of the people, who are the mainstay of an eco-friendly, sustainable tourism in the region.

Even during the pandemic, tribal weavers in Meghalaya were busy making fabric for masks to be woven by people to protect themselves from coronavirus infections. "We made sure that the yarns reached the weavers so that they could work and earn during the pandemic," says Sritapa Dam, assistant business manager at the Shillong-based social enterprise, Impulse Empower. "It is important to provide livelihoods to remote communities," adds Dam. "We must promote trade, not aid."

The North East Festival held in Guwahati during December 19-20 witnessed strategy meetings between tour operators and government officials

The North-East region has been preparing for a push for its underachieving tourism industry for some years. According to India Tourism figures, the North-East received 77.13 lakh domestic visitors during 2016, only 0.47 per cent of domestic tourist visits within India. The number of foreign arrivals during the same year was 1.38 lakh, a meagre 0.55 per cent of the total foreign tourist arrivals in the country.

In April last year, the influential Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (DTOI) launched its North-East Chapter, revitalising the region's fledgling tourism industry. The DTOI chapter followed the formation of the Northeast India Tour Operators’ Association (NEITO) a year before. With the North-East sharing border with five countries -- Bangladesh, Tibet Autonomous Region and China, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar -- the region's tour operators understand they need support and a high degree of professionalism to dabble at the international level.

For now, North-East's tourism industry is pinning its hopes on domestic travellers bringing the much-needed business. Minister Jitendra Singh says Indian travellers who would have travelled to Europe in the normal times would now prefer the quiet and less-crowded destinations in the North-East. Assam's tea gardens in Jorhat, Tinsukia and Dibrugarh are converting their British era bungalows to heritage resorts to welcome high-spending visitors. "Visitors will be able to live the life of a tea planter," says Assam tourism secretary Razvee Hussain. A tea museum too is coming up in Dibrugarh to promote tea tourism.

Tribal-dominated autonomous councils like Dima Hasao in Assam are leading the resurgence of tourism, an underachieving industry in North-East

Mask-wearing models at a fashion show in Guwahati as industry leaders prepare to move to tourism with a "new normal" in 2021

"Tourists are slowly trickling in. We are very hopeful it will pick up in the New Year," says Sikkim tourism minister Bedu Singh Panth. "Except for Nathu La (mountain pass), all of Sikkim is open to visitors," he adds. In 2018-19, Sikkim received one million domestic tourists and 50,000 foreign visitors, most of the foreign arrivals from the Buddhist circuit, including Thailand and Japan. "There are no arrivals from the Buddhist circuit," says Panth.

With foreign arrivals not expected until the middle of this year or later, new additions like seaplanes and cycle tracks (in Majuli island) in Assam will keep up the enthusiasm of domestic tourists. "Sea planes will revolutionise tourism in North-East," says Shantanu Kalita, who heads Spicejet's seaplane department. After Ahmedabad, which received the country's first seaplane service between the Sabarmati riverfront and Statue of Unity in Kevadia, Gujarat last October, Assam will see seaplanes ferrying tourists between Guwahati and Umrangso, which hosts the Falcon Festival in Dima Hasao. "The next seaplane service will be in Arunachal Pradesh," adds Kalita.

Shillong's rock band Soulmate performing at the North East Festival in Guwahati

The sea planes are also expected to carry cargo transport between North-Eastern states, which had been boosted by the recent agreements between India and Bangladesh allowing use of Chittagong and Mongla ports in Bangladesh for speedy movement of goods between North-Eastern states. Under the shadow of a low growth in tourism for decades, the North-East region is finally ready to assume the leadership role. Welcoming the visitors would be the glacial lakes in Sikkim, the dragon fruit in Nagaland, the Bugun bird in Arunachal Pradesh and the INA memorial in Manipur. Says the NEITO president and Meghalaya tour operator Blah, "We want to move to tourism with a new normal in the New Year."