Festive fillip for tourism in state

SHILLONG, Oct 12: Tourism in Meghalaya has begun to pick up with the festive season after a long COVID-induced pause.
“The footfalls are increasing; many tourist spots are open and so are the hotels. We hope this continues for the good of the state,” Tourism Director Cyril Diengdoh said on Tuesday.
The government expects more visitors in November and December, he said.
Diengdoh said the state government has been availing of various schemes from the Centre such as Swadesh Darshan and implementing them.
The inflow of tourists seems to have brought back the smiles on the faces of people dependent on the tourism industry, although the losses during the COVID-19 closure still hurt. Despite a spike in travel costs due to the increasing fuel prices, the parking spots at tourist spots have been full over the past few days.
Officials said the government plans to increase the contribution of tourism to Meghalaya’s Gross State Domestic Product to 10% in the next five years. The figure currently is less than 3%.
While efforts are on to develop new tourism circuits, land acquisition issues in some cases and COVID-19 restrictions have delayed the construction work on at least 20 tourism-related projects across the state since 2018.
Nine of these delayed projects are in East Garo Hills, four in West Garo Hills, three in Ri Bhoi and two each in East Khasi Hills and South West Garo Hills district.
Compared to the other regions, the Jaintia Hills area has largely remained unexplored by tourists except for a few locations such as Dawki, Krang Suri and Tyrshi Falls.