Former MLA Ronnie V Lyngdoh has made an impassioned plea that Meghalaya should not be overly dependent on Delhi for central doles. He has pointed at tourism as the game changer for Meghalaya because it will create employment and boost the economy of the State. Guest house and home-stay owners have created jobs for themselves and are also employing others. The tourism economy operates in a cyclical manner. Farmers who grow produce sell them to the local markets or supply vegetables and livestock directly to these tourist facilities from restaurants/dhabas, to home-stays, guest houses and hotels. Everyone is inter-dependent. The tourist taxi owners and drivers rely heavily on tourists. In fact the pandemic has caused much loss and pain to those who availed loans to purchase vehicles for transporting passengers on a daily basis. Now that the Government has announced the opening up of the tourism circuit since December 21, those with stakes in tourism are all geared up to receive tourists. However, there are destinations where the village councils have decided to set their own dates for reopening. Some have decided to allow tourists to come in only next year.
Tourists too are wondering about the new entry-exit point protocol and many are unsure about where and how to apply and what documents are required. Protagonists of the entry-exit points.ILP have pointed to Sikkim as an example of how tourism thrives despite entry protocols. But Sikkim had these protocols ever since it became a state of the Indian Union. To enter Sikkim, international visitors require a Restricted Area Permit (RAP). Both international visitors and Indians require a Protected Area Permit (PAP) but only if they wish to visit certain areas of Sikkim; otherwise the latter don’t require the PAP.
The new tourism policy of Meghalaya wants to deter day tourists from neighbouring Guwahati because the bulk of such visitors don’t opt to stay back but prefer to make a return trip the same day. The new policy speaks of high end tourism which states that a person visiting Meghalaya would be designated a tourist only if he/she stays back at least two days. Anyone else would be considered a traveller and not a tourist. This new ‘high-end protocol might ultimately deter day tourists who have their own utility. Day tourists may not check in at hotels but they patronise all the eating joints along the way. The variety of ‘tourist’ envisaged by the Tourism Department of Meghalaya is the moneyed class who will travel from point to point, eat only in the hotel/guest house and will not opt to eat in any of the multitude of eating places along the way. What happens to these eating joints when there are not enough locals to patronise them? Policies that are knee-jerk in nature will destroy the small economic activities of the little eating joints. Sadly they are not high-end enough!