Mumbai, Sep 4 : The State of Assam is making an all out effort to rebrand its tourism image and promote it as a safe and adventurous tourist destination.
Assam Principal Secretary for Finance and Tourism Himangshu Sekhar Das who led a team to promote the tourist destinations in the state told newspersons here that no tourist had ever been killed even during the troubled days with Bodo and ULFA rebels.
Some of the rebels had in fact after laying down their arms ahve integrated into society and had taken up to tourism as tour operators and taxi drivers.
Mr Das said, ''We are also holding talks with neighbouring countries like Bhutan and Bangladesh to synergise with the Central government's ''Look East policy'' he said, adding ''we want to promote Assam in an effective way without overkilling its image, or disappointing potential visitors by promising more than what we can deliver'' He said the state has seen its arrivals grow exponentially in the last decade, from 96,8444 tourists including 6,490 foreign visitors in 2000, to 3.9 million visitors including 14,699 foreign visitors in 2009-10. The State's tourism budget has also increased ten fold from Rs four-five crores in 2000 to Rs 45 crores for the current fiscal.
The state has a number of destinations like Kaziranga and Manas National Parks, home to endangered animals like the one-horned rhinoceros, Royal Bengal Tiger, wild elephants, the world's largest river island-Majuli and world smallest inhabited island-Umandhan, the Kamakhya Temple, Satra monestaries and little known World War II battle and supply sites that played vital roles in stoping the advance of the Imperial Japanese Army.
In order to attract visitors, the state government has tied up with a number of private investors to spruce up infrastructure. The state's first five-star hotel is being built in Guwahati under a joint venture with Indian Hotels Company of the Taj Group. This will be followed by four more five star hotels. It currently has 1,200 two-star level rooms for visitors.
The state has tied up with private operators to launch luxury boat cruises along the Brahmaputra at 250- 400 dollar a night.
The government is extending subsidies in the form of reimbursement of VAT and luxury tax, subsidising two-star and below hotels, power and approach roads.
The government is also implementing the Central government's policy to subsidise 30 per cent on investments in the state and extending excise breaks to two-star hotels and above, he added.
Mr das said the government was focussing mainly on the middle-class Indian traveller with emphasis on government servants who can avail of special LTC services to visit the north east.
He said ''Our priority is image branding. Assam today is a safe place to visit with some of the most unique attractions for visitors. We plan to leverage our rich nature, wildlife, tea and golf, eco-rural, culture and religious tourism potential.'' At the ground level, we have set up the Assam Tourism Council where 50 per cent of the members are from the private sector and the rest from government departments like the PWD which play an important part in preparing a suitable ground for tourism. The Council is training soft skills like hospitality, honesty to those involed in the industry.
We have also introduced tourist police at popular destinations like Kaziranga Park to help and protect tourists,'' he said.
Assam, with six airports, including Guwahati which is the six buisiest in the country, also plans to be a gateway to the other northeastern states in the region. The government is also holding talks with the Railway Ministry to improve the quality of long train services between cities like Guwahati and Mumbai.
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