ITANAGAR, Oct 14: Siliguri based Association for Conservation of Tourism (ACT) chief Raj Basu has suggested for creation of Arunachal Pradesh Himalayan River Tourism Council by involving all the stake holders for bio-diversity.
Interacting with the tour operators, hoteliers and other stake holders as a part of Paryatan Parv this evening here at State Food Craft Institute near IG Park, Basu said the river base council (circuit) will facilitate the visitors to know the name of the routes through the rivers of the state in easy way.
He told that the circuits if created will also be a role model for the entire world. Basu further exhorted for involvement of local people for development of tourism through home stay and using natural resources and local skills.
“Arunachal Pradesh has many things to offer to the outside world through tourism. If you want to develop tourism in sustainable way, you have to involve the locals through home stay, natural resources and culture”, he said.
Basu, who is popularly known as Tourism Gandhi also said the state has got lots of potential to make it into Tourism Gateway of India connecting all the South-East Asian countries.
Arunachal Pradesh Tour Operator Association President John Panye also called for involvement of community for development of the tourism in the state.
He said the state is in need of strong vision documents and creation of task force in the form of state tourism council or board for the growth of tourism development.
Arunachal Hotel Resort Restaurant & Bar Association general secretary Takam Tayam said there is strong need of linkage of hoteliers with the tourism so that they can host the guests in proper manner.
Due to flourishing tourism in the state, Tayam said the hoteliers are also having more conscious to handle tourists these days, adding some ignorance happened in recent past due to lack of communication.
He also requested the tourism department to conduct sensitization programme to the hotel staffs from time to time for better hospitality and cleanliness.
APTOA member Vijay Sonam said particular adventure activities need to develop or register in different place so that the tourist can go to the particular place for their interested field.
He also said more emphasize should be given on human resources development so that more youths can be trained on tourism activities.
Earlier, training of home stay owners of the state, conducted by the tourism department ended successfully under the guidance of Basu, where all the homestay owners unanimously agreed to the creation of stronger network among themselves.
The training was more of two ways platform wherein home stay owners also share their experiences and expertise with each other.
More than 60 registered home stay owners attended the training from seven districts of the state.
