Arunachal tourism team takes part in HOT festival

ITANAGAR, 11 Dec: A 20-member delegation of Arunachal’s tourism stakeholders, under the initiative of the state’s tourism department, participated in the 5th edition of the Himalayan Orange Tourism (HOT) festival, held at Salt Lake in Kolkata, West Bengal.

The three-day festival, which ended on Sunday, was aimed at bringing together stakeholders from Nepal, north Bengal and the Northeastern states to interact with one another and understand the importance of promoting rural tourism.

Started in 2014, this is the largest Himalayan rural tourism festival in Asia, and it also aims to introduce fresh oranges directly from north Bengal and the Northeastern regions.

During the inaugural session of the festival, Arunachal Pradesh Tourism Deputy Director Bengia M Sonam informed that, since Arunachal is a tribal state with 26 major tribes and more than 120 sub-tribes, visitors can experience rural life every day.

“One can witness the local festivals every month of different tribes, apart from the annual tourism festival,” Sonam said.

Inviting tourists to visit Arunachal to experience the local hospitality, she said: “With the coming up of the Donyi Polo airport in Hollongi, the ease of travelling to Arunachal Pradesh has been made easier with a direct domestic flight connecting Kolkata.”

Footfalls of around 65,000 people, including 30 travel agents and rural entrepreneurs from seven countries, were recorded during the festival. There were 35 stalls, displaying oranges from Arunachal, Nepal, and Darjeeling.

The oranges in the Arunachal stall sold out on the very first day of the festival.

“Kiwis, homemade pickles, smoked teas, handloom and handicraft products, etc, in the Arunachal stall attracted huge numbers of visitors, even before the inauguration of the stall,” the tourism department informed in a release.