ITANAGAR, 27 Jan: National Tourism Day was celebrated at the State Food Craft Institute here on 25 January.
Earlier, the tourism department, in collaboration with the Itanagar Capital Region (ICR) district administration, had conducted a photography contest and a tour guide training programme to promote the ICR as a tourist destination, as part of the celebration.
Mangmo Kamsar, Ajay Singh and Akom Don won the first, the second and the third prize, respectively, in the photography contest.
The prizes were given away by ICR DC Talo Potom, who also distributed certificates to the trainees who completed the tour guide training.
A local cuisine competition and an extempore speech competition were also organised, and the winners were felicitated with certificates.
Potom encouraged the participants to “convert your theory learning to practical use for self-employment generation and livelihood.”
He said that the tourism department would be “one of the primary economy contributors in Arunachal’s growth trajectory.”
Suggesting that “homestays may be run on community-based for more fruitful result,” he asked all stakeholders to “maintain local touch in terms of architectural design and food served to tourists.”
He advised the stakeholders in the tourism sector to “bring improvement in hospitality aspect of our locals/host, so that tourism may flourish in its full force.”
Tourism entrepreneur Bengia Mrinal, who attended the event as a guest, recalled his experiences related to
working in the tourism sector for over two decades, and encouraged youths to “choose quality over quantity while working in the tourism sector.” (DIPRO)