By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma on Thursday informed that Arunachal Pradesh has expressed interest to tie up with Meghalaya in promoting tourism.
“I have discussed this issue with Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Toki and accordingly will organize a joint workshop on how we can work out the possibilities for jointly promoting tourism,” Dr Sangma said.
Dr Sangma made the remarks while inaugurating a workshop on ‘avenues for entrepreneurship in tourism’ organized by the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE) in collaboration with the Tourism department here on Thursday.
Entrepreneurs from various districts of the state participated in the one-day workshop in which they were enlightened about tourism related schemes including the Tourism Development and Investment Promotion Scheme (TDIPS), a scheme offering assistance to entrepreneurs for creation of tourism infrastructure in the form of home stays and resorts to help promote tourism in Meghalaya.
Expressing concerns that the North East region was losing on potential foreign tourists who are unwilling to come to the region because of the ‘disturbed area’ tag associated with the region, the Chief Minister said, “There are few pockets of troubled areas in the region but the region as a whole is being negatively projected.”
Asserting that Meghalaya and the entire North East region is safe Dr Sangma said that there is a need to engage with concerned representatives of those foreign governments and with their respective embassies to present the true ground reality in the region.
Lambasting the adverse travel advisories issued to foreign tourists by their respective embassies, Dr Sangma said “Tourists coming to India and willing to travel to North East are advised not to visit on the pretext that the region is unsafe.”
Meanwhile, Dr Sangma also underlined the need to conduct mapping of entrepreneurs who wanted to take up tourism related programmes in rural areas to promote tourism.
Furthermore, the Chief Minister also informed that the ‘bed and breakfast’ scheme which had earlier failed to take off on its maiden attempt will be boosted to provide home stays in private houses.
For home stays, assistance of 30 per cent of the project cost will be provided to entrepreneurs with a maximum project cost of Rs 16 lakh and the entrepreneur’s contribution would amount to only 2 per cent of the project cost.
For resorts, assistance of 30 per cent of the project cost will be provided to entrepreneurs with a maximum project cost of Rs 1 crore out of which 2 per cent will be contributed by the entrepreneur.