TBM Staff - Mumbai The Meghalaya government released the ‘Meghalaya Tourism Policy 2023’ in Shillong with a resolute aim to make the tourism sector a game changer for the state and effectively augment its meagre resources by exploiting the abundantly available natural bounty that can attract visitors from across the globe.
The policy was released by chief minister Conrad K Sangma in the presence of state tourism minister Paul Lyngdoh at a function held at the State Convention Centre.
Speaking on this after the event, Lyngdoh said, “With the blessings of the chief minister, we have made public the new Meghalaya Tourism Policy 2023 which broadly has two sections – one is the vision statement core guidance principles and two the parts which deal with the thrust areas. We have identified 10 thrust areas under this policy which will be guiding the policy of the route trajectory of tourism in Meghalaya.”
Elaborating that the government will shoulder the responsibility of a leader and mentor, the state tourism minister said, “We need the support of all stakeholders. We need this policy because we want to encourage the youths in tourism in a planned manner and this is something doable because tourism is growing more than ever.”
He said that there has been a substantial increase in the footfall of tourists post the Covid pandemic approximating around 1.5 million tourists including foreign visitors in Meghalaya.
Lyngdoh further expressed strong optimism that the tourism sector will surely be a game changer for the state. The minister asked the youths to take up entrepreneurial endeavours, mentioning that there are only limited opportunities in the government sector.
“How much we can dwell on the reservation policy as we know that opportunities in the government sector are dwindling. And in fact, there is a large alarming number of 60,000 youths who join market employment every year. It is a huge number and unless we identify, encourage, and strengthen tourism as a sector, we see that opportunities in the public sector have become much marginalised,” he said. (Source The HT)
