Shillong, Jan 11: The state government on Wednesday approved the Meghalaya Tourism Policy 2023. The new tourism policy, aimed at ensuring sustainable livelihood to the people, was approved by the state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday.
Cabinet today approved the Meghalaya Tourism Policy 2023. The Tourism Policy will give shape and structure to adapt to the necessary changes required to boost the sector & will also look into aspects of sustainability.@kishanreddybjp pic.twitter.com/XMEQTzJv1L
— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) January 11, 2023
Sangma told reporters that the last tourism policy was made in 2011 and since then the tourism industry and the sector has changed a lot and, hence, there is a need to improve it and adapt to the current situation.
“The idea of creating the tourism policy is to really give a proper shape and structure to the overall tourism sector keeping in mind the current situation that is there in the overall sector,” he said.
He added that things are happening in the tourism sector but then it is not happening in a systematic and structured manner. “Therefore, the policy is meant to give a complete shape to the entire process in which we want the tourism sector to grow and that we need to look at aspects of sustainability.”
Sangma said, “(The policy will look into) how do we make it sustainable… how do we ensure employment generation and entrepreneurship are achieved and ensure the local people are involved in the entire process, how do community participate in this aspect, how will the use of technology ensure the promote of tourism in the best manner and also how the different departments will work together to ensure that at the end we are really able to synergize between the departments and get the maximum output when it comes to the tourism sectors when it comes to livelihood and in term of sustainability and all the other aspects which I have mentioned.”
“Of course, to achieve these ideas and these goals that we have certain areas will have to be focused on, for example we need to focus on creating the right infrastructures in many areas that means rooms, roads, public facilities and utilities. We also need to ensure that we are able to create better circuits and we are able to improve the overall capacity of the people who are involved in the tourism sectors,” he added.
The Chief Minister further said the policy also talks about the safety of the tourists visiting the state. According to him, certification of the homestay will be done so that it builds up the confidence among the tourists who will be staying in those locations. “These kinds of aspects of branding, marketing and regulations – these are the things which will be covered in the tourism policy,” he said.
When asked, the chief minister said the government’s target is to increase the overall contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP. According to him, at present the contribution of the tourism sector to the entire GDP of the state is below 10%.
“Therefore, we are looking at more contributions. Obviously, if we look at the points that I have mentioned to you, so, when we’ll have more rooms coming up, when we’ll have more overall guides coming up or taxis coming up, so obviously all of this and flow of tourists coming in, different activities happenings – all these will lead to the contribution and the revenue of the public as well as the government going on and we expect to see it having a huge impact on the overall GSDP of the state,” he said while adding “We don’t have the numbers as these are things which are not simple to calculate; it is very complicated. But definitely the whole idea of having this structure and this policy is to ensure the contribution of the sector is much more than what it is today.”
On tourists littering famous tourist spots in Sohra and other places, the chief minister said aspects of waste management are also part of the policy. Within the waste management aspect, strict measures are taken for littering and how to involve the local community into the entire process.
