PROMOTE ‘BED AND BREAKFAST’ SCHEME

New Delhi, April11: The Union Tourism Secretary Shri A.K. Mishra has urged the North-Eastern States to promote Bed and Breakfast Scheme wherever practicable and enable the local communities to receive visitors and plan for development of their tourist attractions. He was speaking at the 3rd North-East Business Summit here today where various stake holders discussed opportunities in the tourism sector in the North-East. Shri Mishra said the Union Tourism Ministry has been consistently providing more than 10% of its budgetary outlay for development of tourism in North-East. He said in the year 2005-06, more than Rs. 100 crore was released as against the ceiling of Rs. 79 crore and, the release during the recently concluded 2006-07 was Rs. 110 crore against the ceiling of Rs. 83 crore. Shri Mishra said the region is being projected as a destination through domestic and international media campaigns aggressively. He said the Central Government has encouraged participation of the North-Eastern Region in major domestic and international fairs and festivals. The space in Indian Pavilion at these festivals is being provided free of cost. The presence of the North-East in prestigious events like WTM-London and ITB-Berlin was impressive. Shri Mishra said that his ministry is conscious that the existence of restrictive measures such as Protected Area Permits (PAP)/Restricted Area Permits (RAP)/Inner Line Permits (ILP) is a major constraint. He said, the issue of relaxation of these artificial constraints to tourism has been taken up with the Home Ministry which, in turn, has asked for the views of the State Governments. He said, it will help matters if the State Governments can send their response quickly. He said, while promotion of tourism is necessary for economic development, at the same time we should not be un-mindful of the adverse impact that mass tourism would have on fragile eco-systems of the region. Therefore, the emphasis should be on promotion of responsible and controlled tourism and not mass tourism. Shri Mishra said, there is great scope for developing niche tourism products such as River, Tea, Wildlife, Adventure, Heritage and Eco-tourism in the region. He said, we have something to learn from Bhutan in this regard – the way it has promoted limited but high value tourism