Eight remote villages to be promoted as New Destinations


TAAS adopts unexplored areas, State Govt to give matching support


GANGTOK, September 6: Eight remote but naturally blessed areas in the State have now come under the patronage of Travel Agents Association of Sikkim (TAAS), the apex body of tour operators in the region.

With select destinations in the State swamped by tourists during peak seasons, the relatively virgin areas selected by TAAS should be able to decongest the choking tourism traffic and ensure fair distribution of tourists and accompanying benefits to grassroot levels.

The areas selected by TAAS for adoption in North Sikkim are Dzongu in North Sikkim for tourism promotion based on organic farming and culture of indigenous Lepcha tribal community and Lachen for promotion of Green Lake trekking.

In South Sikkim, TAAS is interested in entering into areas of Sumbuk and Kitam villages for wellness tourism, Borong village for adventure tourism and Yangyang village for nature and cultural tourism. Submuk and Kitam villages are located along the Rangit river and near the Kitam Bird Sanctuary.

Melli Aching village in West Sikkim which is the gateway to the newly notified Pangmelung Singalila trekking trail has also been adopted by TAAS for adventure tourism promotion.

The Rhenock-Rongli-Aritar-Lingtam axis in East Sikkim has also been adopted by TAAS for culture and nature based tourism. This axis consists of the exotic route to Nathu La from Rongli and is nearby the Fhabonglo Wildlife Sanctuary.

All these areas are relatively unexplored from the tourism point of view and after two-years of study of all potential village tourism areas in Sikkim, we in consultation with State government had stepped in to take up these eight areas for tourism promotion, said TAAS president Lukendra Rasaily during a function held here at Janta Bhavan.

The MoUs for adoption for a two-year period were handed over to respective tourism development committees of these eight unexplored areas during the function.

Representatives from most of the selected areas had attended the function.

“The tourism development committees will be analyzing the MoU and a formal agreement with TAAS will be reached within a week”, said TAAS president Lukendra Rasaily.

“There has been a lot of talk about village tourism over the years. We discussed with the State government and interacted with the villagers in the past two years and we concluded that these eight areas should be taken up for quality tourism promotion by TAAS with support from State government”, said Rasaily.

The TAAS will be promoting and marketing the above mentioned eight destinations for a period of two years besides giving training to the local villagers and to protect the ethnicity of village, culture, environment and people including tourists.

Our role will be to bring tourists, facilitate and coordinate with government and other support agencies and to train the local people, said Rasaily. The creation of new destinations will also ensure that the peak tourism season is dispersed to these new areas, he said. He added that TAAS will not encourage man made tourist spots in these pristine areas.

At the same time, Rasaily told the representatives coming from the selected areas that the TAAS is not doing social service by promoting the new destinations. “We do not want the people to get the impression that we are doing social service in this particular project. We are creating new markets to do more business and let us work together that everyone especially the villagers are benefited”, he said. The development of homestays and providing good service to tourists will be responsibility of the respective tourism development committees while the State government will be creating the required infrastructure.

State tourism secretary SBS Bhaduaria said that the State government is committed to village tourism. We have already prepared a detailed project report for village tourism promotion and within one year, works will begin at ground levels for construction of approach roads and tourism related infrastructure in the areas adopted by TAAS, he said.

The function was also addressed by Bali Bhadra Gurung, panchayat secretary from Khechupalri village and TAAS functionaries, Karma Bhutia, SK Pradhan and Satish Bardewa.

Sikkim Hotel and Restaurant Association president Bhanu Pratap Rasaily was also present during the function.

source;sikkim express