Shillong, Aug 16: On the occasion of the 75th Azadi Ka Amrit Mohotsav and NEHU celebrating 50 years of its existence, the department of tourism and hotel management organised a tourism awareness and capacity building programme on August 13 at Kongthong village.
In a statement, Dr Sharad Kumar Kulshreshtha, Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism & Hotel Management said the village was nominated best tourism village by UN-WTO due to unique tradition of giving tune to babies by mothers which is called ‘rwai sur iaw-bei’ and this village was also adopted by Professor Rakesh Sinha, Rajya Sabha Member.
The aim of the programme was to promote rural tourism by encouraging local community with active participation in tourism and hospitality related activities as well as to encourage the village youths to participate in tourism centric skill development programmes,
Professor Prabha Shankar Shukla, Vice Chancellor, NEHU, flagged off the NEHU bus from Central Library, NEHU, Shillong with the faculty members, staff, research scholars and students of Department of Tourism and Hotel Management for Kongthong Village in the morning.
The awareness programme was coordinated by Kulshreshtha and supported by Rothell Khongsit Kongtham, a local youth leader and secretary Kongthong Indigenous Agro Tourism Cooperative Society.
Before reaching Kongthong village, the team visited Swer and Mawrah villages where the national flags and flex banners depicting the unsung freedom fighters of Meghalaya were presented to the two Sordars and remembered their sacrifices for the independence of India as well as holding further discussion on tourism awareness and capacity building programme.
The Inaugural function of the tourism awareness programme was held at school ground at Kongthong village and it was chaired by the Sordar and Secretary Kongthong village with the coordination of Rothell.
Prof Saurabh Kumar Dixit, Registrar (in-charge) NEHU, Dr Puneet Gautam, Head, Department of Tourism & Hotel Management, and Dr. Sharad Kumar Kulshreshtha, coordinator of the one-day tourism awareness and capacity building programme, were welcomed by Rothell.
The programme started with a speech from the registrar (in-charge).
He highlighted some of the strategies for promoting rural tourism. This was followed by a speech from Dr Punit Gautam, head, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management.
He spoke about the importance of community participation in the promotion and development of tourism. The awareness programme was further continued with the sharing speeches of research scholars of department.
Sabrina Lyngdoh, research scholar and In-charge IITTM Shillong, spoke on tour guides skills and training programmes offered by IITTM.
This was followed by sharing of views by Ashok Kumar, research scholar, & senior faculty along with Deborah Passah who talked about the importance of skill training programmes in hospitality sector and highlighted various courses offered by IHM, Shillong. The other scholars, Kimberly C. Langstieh and Kular Skhem Mukhim have also encouraged youths to participate in such village tourism development programme.
The Sordar and the village elders were felicitated by the professors of the tourism and hotel management department and were given portraits of four freedom fighters of Meghalaya which was followed by the distribution of T-shirts among village youth volunteers, a trophy for friendly football match, and certificates for the participants. The programme came to a close with sharing feedback of participants and with the vote of thanks by Kulshreshtha.
The event concluded with the national anthem.
