SHILLONG: Tourism, the mainstay of over 50,000 people in Meghalaya, is getting reinvented and redefined after COVID pandemic brought it to a grinding halt. The new-look policy, now under formulation, aims to ensure more money circulation with regulated footfalls of high-value tourists.
According to Commissioner and Secretary Tourism, Vijay Kumar, high-value tourism is a strategy for increasing the contribution of the Tourism sector to the overall GSDP of the state while also focusing on sustainability and employment generation.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, he explained, “Currently, the contribution of tourism to the state’s GSDP is less than 3%. The goal is to increase this to 10% in the next five years,” adding that the way to move to the high-value tourism model is to focus on Experiential Tourism, which will involve developing varied and enriching experiences for tourists, including but not limited to adventure sports, caving, trekking, rural stays, hands-on learning on local arts and crafts, musical and culinary experience”.
He said all this would be done through enhanced skilling and by supporting the various tourism stakeholders by increasing the number of high-value accommodation units in the state and through branding and popularising new destinations.
On the up-skilling and support of stakeholders Vijay Kumar said a beginning has already been made. He pointed out to recent activities such as providing equipment and other technical gear to the Meghalaya Adventures’ Association during the recent “Meghalayan Age Festival” and the ongoing hospitality training for rural tourism stakeholders.
Informing that on the accommodation front, currently, there are only about 500 rooms in the state with a daily tariff of Rs. 5,000 or more, Kumar said one of the targets for the Department is to double the number of such high-value units in the next two years. The new accommodation units will be distributed across both existing and new destinations and will be managed by Tourism Cooperative Societies and other collectives.
“The government is working with the Meghalaya Village Tourism Cooperative Apex Society and other stakeholders in the rural tourism space to brand and popularise new destinations. We expect that all these interventions will prompt tourists to extend their stay in Meghalaya, thus bringing in higher value,” Kumar pointed out.
Explaining the new dimensions of the rewritten policy like “carrying capacity”, “pricing of tourism products” and “waste management” etc., the Commissioner said these are going to be the guiding principles going forward. “As we are opening up tourism in the state, the Tourism department, after having detailed discussions with all the stakeholders, has come up with three principles — carrying capacity, zero waste and right pricing — which will be the guiding principles going forward. Carrying capacity is defined as “the maximum number of visitors that a destination can accommodate and still achieve the measures of social distancing.”
He said that in the immediate term, enforcing carrying capacity limits will enable all tourism stakeholders to deal with risks associated with COVID and in the long term, it will help in promoting sustainable tourism.