A meeting was called by the Rangli Rangliot Block Homestay Association at Chota Mangwa, on Tuesday. Around 30 tourism stakeholders marked their presence in it.
During the meeting, discussions were held in regards to the August 23 meeting conducted by Darjeeling Hotel Owners’ Association, Himalayan Transport Coordination Committee and Darjeeling Home stays’ Owners Association in Darjeeling, during which the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) was approached with a proposal to re-open the tourism sectors following the guidelines of COVID-19 protocols. However, the association received no response from the GTA’s end till now.
Furthermore, talks were also held regarding measures to resume tourism flow to attract rural tourism by initiating new forms of tourism like trekking, jungle visits, medicinal tourism, river bath, bird watching and focusing more on agro-tourism. Importance to better internet connectivity was also pointed out.
Other points included:
1. Cultural showcase and traditional and organic food availability.
2. Orange and Tea festival to be introduced.
3. Workshop to be organized for 3 days (15th September 2020 to 17th September 2020).
Darjeeling is the third most Googled travel destination among all the tourist destinations in India. Its tourism rate is increasing year by year and most of the people depend on the sector. However, due to the COVID outbreak, the GTA restricted tourists from entering Darjeeling Hills to contain the spread of the virus. In view of this, all stakeholders present during the meeting affirmed to observe the slogan “Healing Tourism “.
1. Developing resilient measures to welcome Darjeeling hill tourism with new additional changes following the protocol of safety measures due to COVID-19 pandemic economic fall.
2. Standardization of sanitization process to be followed by all the tourists entering Darjeeling hills.
3. Safeguarding the sentiments and local aspirations of the surrounding and the residents in the vicinity of the tourist hotspot and homestays’.
4. Control Measures to observe the limitation of tourist flow.
Reportedly, any new initiative will be followed once the GTA releases a notification to allow tourist entry in the hill.