Reimagining Northeast tourism promotion

Thailand planning to begin chartered flight services to Meghalaya by December this year signals a major leap in direct international connectivity from the northeast region and the region's tourism sector. Sustainable operation of the proposed services will help prepare the ground for operationalisation of more international routes connecting airports in the region. The region having 98% international borders makes it imperative to establish more connectivity - air, road, railway and waterway - with neighbouring countries. While turbulent geopolitics in the immediate neighbourhood have delayed critical cross-border highway and railway projects, direct air connectivity to countries beyond the troubled peripheries remains viable, and calls for pushing it by unlocking this untapped potential. The unexplored natural landscape of the region has great attraction for international tourists from South and Southeast Asia. The rich cultural heritage, rooted in migration histories that have similarities with the countries in the neighbourhood, provides opportunities for tourism entrepreneurs to offer niche tourism products to experience lived realities of coexistence of man and nature. Air connectivity in the region has got a boost with operationalization of new airports, modernization of existing airports. Yet, the infrastructure created continues to be underutilised, which demands prioritising strategic route planning and focusing on tourism-driven scheduling. Year-round regular flight connectivity on international routes connecting airports in the region is found unviable by airliners for a number of factors. These include lack of sufficient outbound traffic, seasonal tourism, and lack of frequent corporate or diplomatic traffic, due to which demands on these routes remain low. Thailand evincing keen interest to start chartered services is reflective of the region's tourism potential being noticed by the country. Therefore, tourism promotion by the states in the region needs to be refocused on the south and southeast regions to attract a large volume of inbound high-end tourists. The northeastern states having comprehensive data about outbound tourists from the region to ASEAN and South Asian countries who travel to those countries from Kolkata, Delhi or other cities is crucial to projecting a realistic picture about actual outbound tourists from the region. Of late a significant number of tourists from the northeast region sharing about their tourism activities in some of the ASEAN countries indicate an increase in the number of such air travellers from the region. Due to lack of direct connectivity, the origin of their flights is recorded as tourists from outside the region, and for the destination countries, they are not counted as tourists from the Northeastern states. The states in the region in their tourism promotion in those countries can highlight these data so that global airlines connecting destinations in those countries can reassess the actual demand of fliers from the region if direct flight connectivity is facilitated. Nevertheless, lack of visa facilities in the region requires travellers to opt for Kolkata or Delhi to travel to a destination in ASEAN and other countries. This makes international flights costlier for travellers from the region due to additional expenses incurred in flying to and from Kolkata, Delhi or other cities and accommodation and transportation for visa formalities. This explains the low volume of travellers, as only those who can afford such extra expenditure are keen to travel to tourism destinations in the neighbourhood. The direct connectivity to these international destinations from the northeastern states remains the chicken and the egg dilemma for airliners, but if regular and frequent international flight connectivity is assured, the demand for seats on the international routes will increase. So long as the direct connectivity from the region remains irregular and sporadic, the potential demand will continue to remain suppressed. The airliners, on the other hand, will continue to be hesitant in starting a service from the region to international destinations without committed volume. This paradox calls for the tourism ministry and tourism departments of the northeastern states to collate the data of actual travellers from the region to various global destinations to arrive at a correct estimate and present it to the airliners to relook at their approach and collaborate with other stakeholders to break this cycle. An increase in diaspora population from the region in neighbouring countries for education, employment and cultural exchange is also a pointer of outbound international traffic from different Northeastern states increasing. Yet, due to the origin of their flight being from outside the region, the latent demand for seats on direct international flights remains underestimated and underreported. The tourism promotion in the region has long remained heavily focused on attracting domestic and international tourists. Demand of domestic tourists for connectivity to travel to tourism destinations in the neighbouring counties as part of their trip can also be projected to the airliners. Reimagining tourism promotion in the Northeast has become essential so that it does not remain unidirectional to attract only inbound tourists but also integrates growing outbound traffic from the region to project the actual demand for direct connectivity.