The Union Minister of State for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) Dr Jitendra Singh held meeting in Mumbai with industry leaders to discuss ways and means of promoting tourism and trade in the North East. The meeting was attended by members of Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) and the Maharashtra State Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal.
On the occasion, in the presence of IMC president Deepak Premanarayan, former president Pradeep Chenoy, Rawal and leading Mumbai industrialists and several others, a decision was also taken to set up a North East desk in Mumbai to promote tourist and trade investment from Maharashtra and other Western parts of country in Northeast.
Singh indicated that North East has lot to offer, but the attributes remain unexplored because people outside are either not aware of it or do not find it convenient to venture. He said, “It is a strange contradiction that large number of tourists from Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat are inclined to travel to foreign destinations in the immediate neighbourhood like Bangkok and Kathmandu, but they are not motivated to travel to Shillong or Gangtok which have much more to offer at a much lesser budget. The irony is that a highly scenic destination like Shillong attracts more number of European and foreign tourists compared to domestic or Indian tourists because of lack of awareness in other parts of the country.”
While dwelling on the potential to develop exclusive circuits for industrial, tourism and religious tourism between Western parts of India and North East, Singh also proposed the idea of medical tourism for which a place like Mumbai is more equipped to attract healthcare seekers and patients, most of whom from North East are presently travelling to distant destinations like Vellore in Tamil Nadu because of lack of projection of other options. He also suggested that the country’s leading corporate hospitals could set up referral clinics in different states of the region.
Singh also flagged the idea of combining tourism with “Start-up India” programme which could simultaneously help in engaging youth and generating employability. Similarly, he said, “The youth today is inclined to explore the unexplored destinations for which the government’s department of tourism and the IMC can work together to promote adventure tourism, trekking tourism, etc, by carrying youth from other parts of country to the North Eastern region.”
