Sangai Festival: Promoting Paradise
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: November 05 2015 -
With the 9-day Sangai Festival of Manipur scheduled to kick-start on November 21, the Government of Manipur is making frantic efforts to finish all preparatory works in time.
The Manipur Tourism Department which is the main organiser of the festival has been keeping itself busy trying to chalk out the last minute details of the festival.
In 2010, the Tourism Department renamed the annual tourism festival as Manipur Sangai Festival after the State’s endangered Brow-Antlered Deer popularly known as the Sangai Deer found only in the floating Keibul Lamjao National Park, Loktak Lake.
Billed as a festival to promote Manipur as a world class tourism destination, there seems to be something amiss in the overall conceptualization of the festival.
Though the festival has attracted large numbers of people from the towns and villages of the valley in the last few years, the event is yet to hit the imagination of domestic or foreign tourists.
Though one can notice sprinkling of foreigners apart from those officially invited, the number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) have not been significant to either promote tourism as lucrative industry or to make Manipur a world class tourist destination.
It has been reported that Manipur witnessed the highest percentage increase in FTAs during the year 2013-14. The number of tourists in 2013-14 was 1,45,647 of which 1,43,059 were domestic and 2,588 foreign.
However, one is not sure which season had the highest tourist footfalls.
It may be mentioned here that 1,51,804 tourists visited the Hornbill Festival of neighbouring Nagaland between December 1 and 9, 2014. Of these, 1110 were foreign tourists, 15694 domestic and 135000 local tourists from within the State.
It has been recorded that inflow of tourists, both domestic and foreigners, in Manipur are comparatively on the rise in Manipur after the lifting of Protected Area Permit (PAP) system in January 2011.
After lifting PAP, FTAs recorded in Manipur are 768 in 2012-13 against 602 in 2011-12. In 2010-11, a total of 431 FTAs were recorded.
There were 1,31,803 domestic tourists in 2012-13 against 1,33,224 in 2011-12. But in 2010-11, it was only about 1,16,652 while in 2009-10 it was 1,27,524. The total domestic tourists in 2008-09 was around 1,15,300.
When one looks at the figure, it is not sure if the State Tourism Department is doing enough to draw the attention of the world.
If it does and nothing much has been achieved, then as mentioned above, there is some problem either with the strategies or its conceptualization.
One should remember that promoting tourism is tied to generation of revenue and employment for the unemployed youth.
The true worth of organising a festival like Sangai that aims at promoting the “Little Paradise” would be known only when it brings in immediate benefits to the people.
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