December 24: Underlining the impact of the covid pandemic on the tourism industry, a post-covid-19 stock-taking deliberation took place to improve the state of Northeast tourism in Guwahati earlier this week. The discussion was attended by private, and government stakeholders, and was organised on December 20 as a part of the 2-day North East Festival.
The discussion also talked about the current challenges staring at the region’s industry and the opportunities further those could help improve the operations in the shadow the pandemic. For some time from now, the tourism industry has to survive catering the domestic tourists only, the discussion also hovered on ensuring hassle-free travel for inbound tourists across the Northeast. The president of Assam Tour Operators Association, Ranjit Das opened the discussion at the Radisson Blu hotel of Guwahati city.
He said, “Travel experience changes immensely after every crisis and so will it be post Covid-19. We are all hoping for a better 2021 but forecasting possibilities are very difficult at this moment.” Further, he also observed that “when mainland India tourists think of travelling to the Northeast, they want to visit at least two to three states at one go.”
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“This means we need horizontal collaboration between the state tourism departments, the tourism associations of the eight states and also the transport associations. That is why we feel that dialogue is very important at this point. We need a uniform protocol for seamless travel across the region,” said Das who was the moderator of this discussion.
Suggesting about the situation and how it can be managed, R.K. Sharma who is the founding member at Manipur Tourism Forum quoted, “As a tour operator what I have been facing since the last one month or so, the time since tourists have begun trickling into the region, is lack of a clear SOP by the government on what kind of permit or clearance a visitor needs to procure for smooth travel across the region.”
Further, he also laid an example, “I have a client who arrived in Guwahati last week with all the necessary test results and documents following which she was allowed to move around Assam. After four days, she wanted to go to Arunachal Pradesh, which meant she had to do a fresh RT-PCR test to enter that state as the 72-hour deadline since her test to enter Assam had expired. She was in Kaziranga by then, but couldn’t locate any lab nearby to get the test done, and had to drive to Tezpur town to get herself tested, spend a night there to collect the report the next day to proceed to Arunachal. As a tour operator, I had no way of giving her any clear instructions as I was not sure myself where these tests were being done. Since Meghalaya will open for tourists from December 21, any tourist visiting the Northeast will face the same problem as the 72-hour norm will be applicable there too.”
