New Delhi, April 5: The Meghalaya government has begun preparing a policy to turn the state into a favoured tourist destination and to open up new avenues for employment and income-generation.
Meghalaya tourism minister and former chief minister, F.A. Khonglam, said the policy was necessitated by the “lack of response” in the sector “despite the state’s tremendous potential”.
“It is surprising that the previous governments did not think of formulating a policy that would clearly spell out the thrust areas in this sector. Now that the exercise has begun, we expect it to be completed before the next Assembly session,” Khonglam told The Telegraph, adding that his tenure as chief minister was “too short” to initiate work on framing a policy.
Explaining the broad outlines of the scheme, he said the tourism policies of states, which had benefited from the sector, would be studied.
“We would like to take into account the policies of Kerala and Haryana and incorporate elements that have turned these states into favoured tourist destinations,” he said.
The minister said emphasis would be laid on private participation, which included subsidies to tourist operators and entrepreneurs. The minister said once the policy was introduced, private firms would be invited to conduct a study and suggest blue prints for development of spots that could be hard-sold as tourist destinations.
“We have already identified places like Cherrapunjee, Mawsynram, Nongstoin and Jowai that could be developed as tourist destinations. But since we do not have the expertise in the field, we would invite private parties to show us the route of development. This is important because different places have their unique characteristics and there cannot be one model of development,” he added.
Khonglam admitted the possibility of introducing circuit tours that would take the tourists to important places in a single trip. “So far, tourists have remained confined to Shillong and Cherrapunjee. Circuit tours would help introduce new places that have been hidden to the outside world,” he said.