Northeast Witnessing Increase In Domestic And Foreign Tourist Inflow: Centre

New Delhi: With the prevailing normalcy in the northeastern states, the region has witnessed a remarkable increase in its tourist inflow-both domestic and foreign tourists.

Significantly, to ensure the involvement of local communities in promoting the tourism sector, the tourism ministry encourages the state governments for due consultation with local communities during preparation of different tourism projects.

"Ministry of Tourism under its scheme Capacity Building for Service Providers (CBSP) has undertaken various skill development programs to provide education, training and certification to the tourism service providers covering different level of hospitality sector," said Minister of State for Development of Northeastern region (DoNER) Sukanta Majumdar in the Parliament on Wednesday.

Giving details in the Lok Sabha, Majumdar said 1,20,78,776 domestic tourists visited the Northeastern States in 2023 followed by 2,21,050 foreign tourists.

Of the total 1,20,78,776 domestic tourists, as many as 76,12,720 tourists visited Assam in 2023 followed by 13,71,674 tourists in Meghalaya and 13,21,169 in Sikkim.

Similarly, 93,908 foreign tourists visited Sikkim in 2023 followed by 66,708 foreign tourists visited Tripura and 23,818 foreign tourists visited Assam.

According to the tourism ministry data, 118.45 lakh domestic and 1.04 lakh foreign tourists visited the North Eastern States during the year 2022.

“Ministry of Tourism under the schemes of ‘Swadesh Darshan’, ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD)’, ‘Assistance to Central Agencies for Tourism Infrastructure Development’ provides financial assistance to State Governments and Union Territory Administrations and central agencies for the development of tourism related infrastructure in the country including North Eastern Region,” Majumdar said.

The Ministry of Tourism also promotes various tourist destinations of the North Eastern Region through various initiatives including promotional events, assistance to State Governments, stakeholders for organising fairs and festivals, participation in exhibitions, website and social media.

Referring to the creation of manpower in the tourism sector, Majumdar said that through its Central Institutes of Hotel Management (CIHMs) at Guwahati and Shillong, Ministry of Tourism imparts professional education and training in the field of hospitality to create a pool of manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the tourism and hospitality industry.

“For projects sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Tourism encourages the State Governments and UT administrations for due consultation with local communities during preparation of projects. The Ministry of Tourism under its scheme Capacity Building for Service Providers has undertaken various skill development programs to provide education, training and certification to the tourism service providers covering different levels of the Hospitality sector,” Majumdar said.

Referring to the other developmental projects in the northeastern States, Majumdar said that a total of 74 projects costing Rs 2806.82 crore have been sanctioned under the various schemes of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region during the year 2024-25 till 28.02.2025.

“Out of these projects, 10 projects costing Rs 969.82 crore have been sanctioned under the North East Special Infrastructure Development Scheme-Other than Roads Infrastructure (NESIDS-OTRI) scheme. The implementation period of the projects sanctioned under NESIDS(OTRI) scheme depends upon various factors such as the geographical location, terrain, availability of land, mandatory statutory clearances, removal of obstacles, financial closures etc,” the minister said.