Foreign delegates hopeful of expanding tourism ties with North east
Source: Mithu Choudhury *

Guwahati, January 20 2013 : A huge amount of opportunities are looming large over the state of Assam and the whole of North east, as the international tourist fraternity, who have come to Guwahati for taking part in the International Tourism Mart, are expressing optimism in having and expanding ties, in terms of tourism, with North east.

Narierut Pantong from Thailand, Hoang Dinh Anh from Vietnam, Laura Stone from UK and all other international and national delegates are looking forward to strengthening the tourism ties between the North east India and their own respective countries.

Expressing her happiness,over the warm welcome received from the people of Assam and North east, , Narierut Pantong, Managing Manager, NISCO travel, Bangkok told Sakalbela, "I think the people of this part of India are very nice and good.

Most importantly, there are Buddhist people and monasteries out here and there is possibility of encouraging other Buddhist people as well as tourists to come to visit north east" .

"This is my first visit to the North eastern part of India and I will have to look for the tourism products available in this region.

Then only, I will be able to convince my clients in Thailand to make a visit to North east.

Thai people do not know about this region.

I will come back again, may be with some journalists to write about this region in our own language and promoting this region as a popular tourist destination," she further added.

Narierut, who has visited some other parts of India, feels that eco-tourism, has got potentiality in North east.

"I have also chosen Arunachal Pradesh for promotion of religion tourism, on the basis of Buddhist religion," she said.

Hoang Dinh Anh, owner of Dinh Anh International travel, Vietnam finds cultural similarity between North east Vietnam and North east India.

"While I was watching the cultural performances, I saw some similarity, in terms of dress, song and dance, between the cultures of North eastern part of Vietnam and North east India.

And, until now we have not found any difficulties.

It was a bit strange when we visited Kolkata.

But, here we are feeling better and I think people from our country will love this place," Anh expressed.

"Though, I am overwhelmed with the warm welcome shown on part of the government, the actual picture of tourism potentiality of the region would be visible after the technical visits to some of the places of North east.

We will definitely help in promoting this region," Anh said.

Another delegate from the UK, Laura Stone has stated that people in her country do not know about North east.

"For people of my country, India ends at West Bengal.

But, this region, located beyond West Bengal has lot of potentiality in the field of adventure tourism.

I did not realize that people would make such a huge effort to make us so welcomed.

I am really excited about the future of tourism in North east and I think it would be great," Stone told.

Stone, who is a travel writer by profession, expressed her willingness to promote this region through her writings.

"I write travel articles and guide books and I specialise in adventure travel.

I will recommend people to come here for that.

There is possibility of developing trekking, cycling, river cruising etc in this part, which might attract tourists of UK," she further added with a note to visit this place again with her clients.

Seventy nine delegates from twenty three countries like Vietnam, Thailand, UK and other ASEAN and SARC countries have made their presence at the first ever International Tourism Mart, starting from 18th of January at the city.

* The sender of this news can be contacted at sivaassam(at)gmail(dot)com .

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