Over 12 lakh visited state last year
SHILLONG: Despite several bottlenecks and challenges of connectivity, Meghalaya continues to soar high in tourism sector.
More and more tourists continue to flock Meghalaya and last year more than 12 lakh tourists visited the state.
As per the statistics of Directorate of Tourism, in 2016, as many as 8,39,363 tourists, including 8476 foreigners visited the state.
In 2017, the number of tourists visiting the state further increased to 10,02,907 including 12,051 foreign tourists.
Last year, Shillong witnessed unrest over the issue of Harijan Colony and the city was under security cover for long but that did not deter tourists from visiting Meghalaya.
As many as 11,98,340 domestic tourists and 18,114 foreign tourists visited Meghalaya last year.
Founding chairman of Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum and a former minister, R.G. Lyngdoh while speaking about the tourism sector said the conventional model of tourism will not work in Meghalaya
“By conventional model, I mean a person from outside setting up a hotel and local people setting up hotels here will not sustain for long,” he said while stressing on the need to build up the capacity of the local community to understand what tourism is besides making them understand about garbage and solid waste management.
Stressing the need of micro economy, he said the local communities and entrepreneurs should collaborate with each other which would go a long way in promoting tourism.
Ian Khongmen, an entrepreneur who is working in tourism sector for long said first of all, Meghalaya needs to have a tourism policy which would highlight many important aspects about tourism in the state
Stating that most of the popular tourist destinations are located in rural Meghalaya, he said the best suitable model for Meghalaya is ecotourism as the state is already blessed by natural beauty and local communities are the main stakeholders.
He said micro business like home stays have resulted in the flow of tourists in the state and there is a need to give the stakeholders awareness about sewage management.
Maintaining that the social media helped in promoting famous places like Shnongpdeng and double decker bridge, he however, cautioned that coal mining and tourism cannot exist together.
“There are beautiful places in Jaintia Hills but many of those places have been destroyed by coal and lime stone mining,” he said while lamenting that coal mining is rampant in the borders of West Khasi Hills and Garo Hills and it is threatening the ecosystem and there is a need for coming up with an immediate solution.