By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 2: Even as the Meghalaya government wants to regulate the flow of tourists, the Federation of Shillong Hotels has asserted that any move to cut down the flow of tourist in the state is not a good idea while emphasising that Meghalaya’s tourism is at a nascent stage. The hoteliers’ body however agreed to the idea of limiting visitors to sensitive areas like the root bridges due to its capacity.
Its president, Parambir Singh Sehdave, said that a state like Jammu and Kashmir has an annual footfall of nearly 2 crore tourists, whereas Meghalaya has recently crossed the mark of 10-12 lakh tourists annually.
“We should rather look at improving our capacity and further improve infrastructure, so that we can take more tourists,” Sehdave said.
It may be mentioned that the state government is preparing to come up with a legislation to protect the fragile ecosystem of Meghalaya, while aiming to go for quality tourism and not be just guided by footfall quantum.
Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh had recently asserted that more than the footfall, the department’s emphasis is the high value tourism to upscale the quality of visitors rather than the number of visitors.
While Meghalaya’s tourist count a year is around 10-15 lakh tourists, the neigbouring state of Assam saw nearly 99 lakh tourists coming to that state in 2022-23.