Centre to promote North East as single tourist destination

Guwahati, Dec 6 (PTI) The Centre will promote NorthEast as a single tourism destination with an aim to double thetourist inflow within next three y...

Guwahati, Dec 6 (PTI) The Centre will promote NorthEast as a single tourism destination with an aim to double thetourist inflow within next three years, a top official of theTourism Ministry said here today.

The region has huge potential considering the untappedlocations across the eight North Eastern states, Union Tourismsecretary, Rashmi Verma said at a press conference.

"From 2013 to 2016, the tourism sector in North Eastgrew by 5.2 per cent. During this period, 77 lakh domestic and1.6 lakh foreign tourists visited the region. This growth isencouraging, but it is just the tip of the iceberg," she said.

"We need to have greater and aggressive marketingstrategy. We have now decided to promote and market the regionas a single location. This will be in addition to the ongoingpromotional activities done by restive states," Verma said.

The Centre is more interested in promoting the NorthEast tourism as different thematic destinations such asadventure tourism and eco tourism under the existing tagline-- Paradise Unexplored, she added.

When asked about the growth targets for the region,the Union Tourism secretary said: "If we work together withall the states, I am sure that very very easily we can doublethe figures for the tourism sector of North East."She said the government is also looking at promotingNorth East in neighbouring countries, especially ASEANnations.

"For this, now we are focusing on improving the airconnectivity. The Civil Aviation Ministry has identified 92sites in North East and financial bidding has already begun.

In the next six months, we are going to see many new flightsconnecting smaller towns in the region," Verma added.

The Tourism secretary said roadshows will beorganised in foreign countries to promote North East as atourist destination.

"We give special focus on promoting North East in allour travel marts. We will have a NE specific roadshow inThailand and talks are going on. Similar roadshows will havein other ASEAN countries as well," Verma said.

Highlighting Centre's role, she informed that theUnion Government has sanctioned 14 tourism projects for NorthEast, amounting to Rs 1,200 crore, including two for Assamworth Rs 170 crore.

Talking about the ongoing three-day 6th InternationalTourism Mart, being held in Guwahati from yesterday, AssamFinance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said 67 foreign delegateshave participated in the summit from 29 countries.

"Besides, 29 tour operators from across India and 103from North East are participating.

We are very confident that with the success of thisMart, there will be huge tourist inflow to Assam in comingdays," he added. PTI TRRG.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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