Akangjungla
The growing popularity of Hornbill Festival among the Indians as well as international tourist seems to be slowly making way for the skeptical and doubtful lot to be optimistic about the growth of Tourism sector in Nagaland. The 24th edition of the ten-day Hornbill Festival 2023 drew a total of 154,057 visitors at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama. Hornbill as a festival tourism has in many ways shown progress.
Another kind of tourism picking up recognition in Nagaland is the rural tourism. With over 1300 villages in Nagaland, the population according to the Official State Portal is spread across ‘16 administrative districts ‘inhabited by 17 major tribes along with other sub-tribes. Each tribe is distinct in character from the other in terms of customs, language and dress.’ Few of the popular rural tourism sites are Tuophema Tourist village, Dzüleke village, Khonoma village, Longwa village, Mopungchuket village, Diezephe Village etc to name a very few, have been productively tapping the hidden resources of rural tourism.
Another endeavour has been to make Nagaland an Eco-tourism destination. Eco-Tourism is understood as ‘All nature-based forms of tourism in which the main motivation of the tourists is the observation and appreciation of nature as well as the traditional cultures prevailing in natural areas.’ The community is an essential component of the eco-tourism. The International Ecotourism Society underscores that ‘ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and sustainable travel’ and one of the principals of ecotourism is to ‘Recognise the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment.’ Some of the close examples of ecotourism in Nagaland are Dzükou valley, Doyang Hydro Project, Mt Saramati, Kapamodzü Peak likewise Dzüleke, Khonoma and some other destinations are also included.
The Nagaland Economic Survey 2022-2023, published by Directorate of Economics & Statistic, Government of Nagaland and tabled in the recently concluded 1st session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly at Kohima give emphasis to the information that tourism offers great opportunities in the form of creating jobs, strengthening the local economy, contributing to local infrastructure development and helping to conserve the natural environment and cultural assets and traditions and reducing poverty and inequality. It confirmed that with the lifting of PAP (Protected Area Permit) on year basis, tourism in Nagaland has grown remarkably and is becoming a promising sector, sharing potential with other places in the country and the world.
The entry of tourists to the Nagaland state have earlier been limited due to travel restrictions such as the Restricted Area Permits (RAP) and Protected Area Permits (PAP) for foreign nationals and ILP for domestic visitors, though it has being relaxed to a certain extent since 2000. Much later, the RAP and PAP, needed by foreigners for travel to three Border States of North East, such as Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram were eased considerably with very few rejections since October 2023. The Union Ministry of Tourism’s Regional Director in the North East has mentioned that in the past, obtaining RAP or PAP was a challenging process, but the Indian government, which is actively promoting the North East as a tourism destination, has relaxed these restrictions. This allowed foreign travelers to visit these states through organised tours, which must be arranged by a local tour operator based in the respective state.
The last Nagaland State Tourism Policy was adopted in the year 2001. The document, available in the public domain, shares a quite number of objectives, strategy for development, action plan, incentives, marketing and oversea publicity, the need for co-ordination and synergy with other Agencies and restructuring the department, human resource development, and enhancement of budgetary allocation. During the World Tourism Day observed at Tseminyu district on September 27, 2023, Nagaland state tourism department official announced that the State Policy will be as per the National Tourism Policy ‘but we are revising it, which will be relevant for our state.’ While the new State Tourism Policy is awaited, it can be with assent taken into consideration that Nagaland has the potential and features to do extremely well in the field of tourism. The landscape of tourism all over the world is progressing and the options are limitless for the travelers to choose from the list of destinations on the world map, and therefore, unlocking a niche of tourism which is year long, imaginative yet original, community-centered, and true reflection of the people and the place, would perhaps give the authentic experience of Nagaland to the visitors and guests.
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