SESSION -1
Day Two of the International tourism Mart 2017
started with a presentation on exploring North East by Shri Suman Billa, Joint
Secretary, Ministry of Tourism. This presentation highlighted the varied
tourism products of North East region and the initiatives taken by Ministry of
Tourism for development of tourism Infrastructure, promotion and marketing,
Human Resource Development in tourism sector for the North East region.
The presentation was followed by a panel
discussion on the subject “Exploring India’s North East and Developing
Inter- Regional Tourism between BIMSTEC, ASEAN Countries and North-East
region of India” The topics of discussions in this session was
centered around steps taken by Ministry of Tourism to develop tourism in the
North East, striking a synergy between Central Government Ministries and other
government agencies for optimizing their resources for promotion and
development of Tourism in the North East Region.
As the majority of North East States share
International borders with ASEAN and BIMSTEC Countries, the session also
identified geopolitical drivers of tourist flows in the future in view of
India’s increased focus on ‘Act East’ policy. The key speakers of the
session included Smt. Rashmi Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Shri Naveen
Verma, Secretary, DONER, Shri Ram Muivah, Secretary, NEC, Shri R.C.Jain,
Commissioner & Secretary (Tourism), Assam, Shri Rajiv Kohli, Vice
President, IATO and Shri Arjit Purkayasth, Tour operator of Assam.
SESSION-2
The second panel discussion dwelled on the Opportunities
in Promotion of North- East region of India. In this session the
Secretaries of Tourism of all the eight North Eastern States presented the
unique selling products of each States that makes them fascinating. All
the Speakers agreed to the common fact that, the potential of this region lies
in its having spectacular biodiversity, wildlife, culture, snow-capped
Himalayas, tropical forests, shrines of diverse religions, ancient villages and
historically important archaeological sites and variety of ethnic tribes having
fascinating culinary heritage. The Northeast provides a wonderful opportunity
for ‘Experiential Tourism’ at its very best.
This session explored collaboration among states
to promote interstate tourism circuits and Synergy between the key tourism
stakeholder from other regions of the country to actively work with
tourism stakeholders/ suppliers from the North East Region for positioning the
North East Tourism products among international tour operators and domestic
tourist highlighting the lesser known products, new experiences, adventure
tourism opportunities in North East Region.The other speakers of the session
included Shri M.P.Bezbaruah, Former Secretary (Tourism) and member Eco Tourism
Society India, Shri Swadesh Kumar, President, ATOAI, Shri P.P.Khanna, President
ADTOI and Shri Gautam Chintey, Advisor, North East Council.
*****
Sanjay Kumar/Tourism-ITM (Gauhati)/06.12.2017
