Tourism taking a hit, says hotels’ body

SHILLONG, Nov 26: The Federation of Shillong Hotels, while expressing concern over the incidents of violence reported from Shillong lately, has highlighted the impact such incidents can have on tourism, which provides livelihood to over 20% of the state’s population.
The violence will only push the large tourism dependent population into distress and unemployment, more so because this sector has barely seen a bit of revival after two long years of COVID-19 pandemic, the federation said in a statement.
It also urged the government to take measures to ensure that a cordial and law-abiding atmosphere is maintained at all times and the tourism industry is not affected in any manner.
“The recent flare up has caused immense hardship to the tourists who had booked their trips to Meghalaya, a long time back. Doctors who were to attend the conference at Shillong are at the receiving end of all the lawlessness that prevailed in the last couple of days and many of them cancelled their visit at the last moment. The tourism related festivals were also cancelled as a mark of respect to the dead but the chaos has persisted and unfortunately presented a very grim image of the state,” the statement said.