The state of Assam has seen a huge growth in the tourism sector in the post COVID era. Not only has it seen a growth in footfall in terms of domestic tourists, same has been seen for foreigners. Following this, the Assam Tourism Development Corporation is looking at over 1 Cr domestic tourists in the coming tourism season of the state.
“Till January of this fiscal, we have hosted over 88 lakh domestic visitors, which is more than double what we received during FY20 (51 lakh). This is a positive sign as more and more people are looking at exploring the North East and Assam as a destination,” mentioned Padmapani Bora. He is the Managing Director of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation.
According to the books, Assam received 13.5 lakh tourists in 2020-21 and 17 lahks in 2021-22. Assam is the gateway to the entire Northeast India. It has the best connectivity in terms of road, rail, air and even water-based communication. It also offers a wide variety of avenues including nature, wildlife, spiritual, river, adventure and festival-based tourism.
Speaking about the growth in the number of foreign tourists, he added that it has increased manifold. In the 2020-21 session, the number was just 1850 which had increased to 10000. The top sources for inbound tourists to the state include Nepal, Bhutan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Croatia, the United States and Switzerland.
The MD also mentioned that the state tourism department is looking to promote film tourism. The state government will formulate a new tourism policy which will allow single-window clearance for film tourism. This will attract new projects as well as support filmmakers.
Granting industry status to the sector has helped the people working in the sector. It has also created avenues to build new infrastructure and projects to bring high-end tourists to the location. Also, the new website will allow the booking of all tourism-related facilities including accommodations and attracts from a single point.
