By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Turbulence in Darjeeling over demand for a separate Gorkhaland has triggered a massive inflow of tourists into Shillong.
The Pine City is experiencing an unprecedented rise in tourist inflow since the time the North Bengal Hills joined the growing chorus of statehood demand all over the country in the aftermath of the Centre’s decision to make Telangana the 29th state of the Indian Union.
The Shillong Times approached some of these tourists and gathered that Shillong sprung up in their minds immediately after they learnt that Darjeeling had become inaccessibly due to a spate of bandh calls by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which is demanding a separate state.
A tourist from Kolkata, Karuna Sindhu Kar, said that he had to cancel his planned trip to Darjeeling the moment Telengana decision was taken in New Delhi. “I did not want to cancel my trip since we hadn’t gone out on vacation for a long time. After Darjeeling, I believe Shillong is the nearest and apt destination for tourists,” he said, adding that Shillong has been a welcome respite from the hot weather back home.
Hotels and guest houses across the city have been experiencing a rise in business due to the strife in Darjeeling. Several managers and caretakers of hotels and guest houses in the city admitted to the fact that domestic tourists who were planning to go to Darjeeling are now heading towards Shillong.
“We have upcoming bookings for tourist from all over India who had to cancel their Darjeeling trips,” said Mihir Karmakar, hospitality manager of a city hotel.
“Normally at this time, with the onset of the festive season starting with Durga Puja, we take booking calls for the season till the end of January. But this time things have changed as we have to rearrange our booking due to the extra inflow of tourist resulting from the Darjeeling crisis,” said Libak Kharnaior, a front office executive of a city hotel.
However, the picture is not all rosy for the tourism sector in Meghalaya. Jagdish Khurana, a tourist from Madhya Pradesh, lamented that the city had turned for the worse and had become dirtier compared to the last time he had visited the Pine City around ten years back.
“What I understand after visiting tourist sites like Cherrapunjee, Shillong Peak and other places is that people litter these places with empty wrappers, containers, cans etc. I would suggest the Tourism department to disallow visitors, locals or otherwise, from taking any eatables while entering any tourist site,” he said.
He was echoed by another tourist from Northern India who said that most tourist destinations in the country do not allow eatables inside which is a good practice for maintaining cleanliness of the spots and the State Government should think about emulating the idea for a cleaner city and state.