120 crore windfall for Assam
Assam Tourism has been allocated a 120 crore budget this year with 10 per cent of it kept aside only for promotional activities.
Assam Tourism has cleared the cobwebs and restarted promotions after it got a fillip in
` the form of 120 crore budget from the government. It recently embarked on a five-city roadshow with three more cities to follow. Speaking on the sidelines of the Mumbai show was Ashutosh Agnihotri, IAS, Commissioner & Secretary, Tourism Department, Government of Assam. “Assam Tourism’s budget this year is `
120 crore which includes a promotional budget of about `
12 crore. This is flexible and if need be we will spend more on promotion as branding and perception-building is extremely important,” he said.
The roadshow took off from Ahmedabad and travelled to Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. Agnihotri added that the main agenda of this activity was to promote Assam as a safe tourist destination. “Through these roadshows we want to dispel the myths and misgivings about Assam. It is absolutely safe,” he added.
Sharing tourist figures of 2014, Manoj Kumar Deka, Director of Tourism, Government of Assam, said, “For the last decade or so, Assam was known for all the wrong reasons. We want to get rid of that perception. It is now a thing of the past and Assam is now absolutely safe. Last year Assam welcomed 46 lakh domestic tourists and 25,000 international tourists and they have all returned safely.”
Assam Tourism will cover a few more cities in the coming months. These will include Kochi, Kolkata and Gurgaon. “We are trying to cover most parts of the country. We got a fantastic response in Mumbai – even we didn’t expect so many tour operators to attend. We are also planning familiarisation trips for Pune and Mumbai agents. Assam has a lot to offer. Unfortunately, a lot of people particularly in the south are not aware of them,” Deka said.
He added that while the budget earlier was not much, the present government has
Agnihotri said, “We want to engage the private sector through PPP initiatives. We have already taken three initiatives in this regard. These include development of a golf course in Guwahati, five-star category resorts near Assam’s five national parks, and development of another river cruise because it is getting very popular. Private sector is also investing in hospitality, like now we have two five- star hotels already in Guwahati, Radisson Blu and Vivanta by Taj. We have a Marriott and a Novotel coming up soon.”