Arunachal Tourism Society meeting held
Itanagar
The Arunachal Tourism Society (ATS), a newly formed authority, held its Governing Council meeting here today under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister Pema Khandu in presence of Tourism Parliamentary Secretary P D Sona.
Tourism Secretary Dr Joram Beda, who outlined the purpose of the meeting, sought approval of the Governing Council that has members from Urban Development, Research, Sports and Finance departments and Rajiv Gandhi Polytechnic besides the department of Tourism for release of funds under Swadesh Darshan scheme of the central government in PFMS mode to develop state’s adventure tourism and the Bhalukpong-Tawang circuit.
Khandu, as chairman of the Governing Council by virtue of being the Minister in-Charge of Tourism, approved the proposals in principle after taking inputs from the members.
He urged the Society to engage enterprising local youths by outsourcing services to them in the tourism industry, which will bring in professionalism as well as generate employment.
“Manpower is needed for running tourism facility centers and cafeterias. This can be outsourced to professional agencies run by local entrepreneurs,” he suggested.
Khandu welcomed the suggestion put in by the Research Director for including places of religious and historical interests in development of the tourism sector by way of extending facilities. The Research Director had suggested that facility centers and stays can be established in monasteries and viharas as well as historic places like Thembang in West Kameng, which are frequented by visitors.
He also asked the Society to help in compiling courses for polytechnics that would teach and train local youths to exploit and explore the state’s tourism potentials.
Emphasizing on proper publicity of the state’s potential, Khandu advised that brochures, souvenirs and magazines published by the department at the state level should be updated yearly.
The Arunachal Tourism Society has been constituted basically to manage, maintain and operationalise assets created by the Tourism department over the years. It would also undertake promotion and publicity campaigns besides organizing tourism-centric festivals across the state.
