CM attends World Tourism Day programme Less explored places in Assam must be aggressively marketed for reviving tourism: CM

■ Dispur, Sept 27: Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma today attended the World Tourism Day programme organised by Tourism Department at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra and visited stalls put up at the venue for exhibiting handicraft and handloom items of various self-help groups by Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission.
Speaking at the programme, the Chief Minister said that tourism industry has been hit badly due to the COVID19 pandemic and State Government is making efforts to revive the sector as the pandemic situation has improved significantly.
“Assam Government is working towards lifting all COVID restrictions from November 1 in the state and putting all out efforts on bringing maximum people under the ambit of vaccination.” He said while expressing optimism that from 2022, COVID would no longer be able to threaten life and livelihood of people around the world and tourism industry will witness major boom as people would travel extensively after remaining in Covid restrictions for 2 years.
At the programme, the Chief Minister announced a scheme of Tourism Department to provide Rs 2 lakh each to 142 tour operators and Rs 25,000 each to 605 tour guides as relief package to overcome COVID pandemic losses.
The Chief Minister also stressed on the need to attractively package less explored destinations of Assam for outside visitors while not keeping the tourism circuit limited to only Kaziranga National Park and other known places.
“Assam’s food, handloom, handicraft, tribal culture, natural beauty must be explored by the world,” he said.
He also asserted that militancy has been controlled to a large extent in the state as several extremist groups are in talks the government. He called on tour operators to aggressively market beautiful places in Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, BTR etc taking advantage of prevailing peaceful situation.
He also appreciated Indian Railways for starting Vistadome rail service from Guwahati to New Haflong in Dima Hasao which would go a long way in popularising the hill station.
Tourism Minister Bimal Bora also spoke at the programme and highlighted the importance of domestic tourists to revive the industry after the pandemic. Self-employment avenues generation potential of the sector is huge and it must be tapped for providing employment, he said.