Insurgency effect on TourismNorth-east India

By: Rojit AsemIITTM-Gwalior 2nd Sem. TT’B’

• Tourism industry can act as a revenue generator and as a catalyst for development in a North-eastern region of India.

• Seven States comprise Indias Northeast: Assam, Arunachal �Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. These States cover a combined area of over 255,088 sq. km. (7.7 per cent of the countrys territory).�

• Characterized by extraordinary ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity, with more than 166 Scheduled Tribes

• Northeast India has been an area of great and continuous civilisation intercourse through history, and has been thought of as “a gateway of commerce and culture that linked India overland to east and Southeast ”, and “a complex transition zone of linguistic, racial and religious streams”.

NORTH-EAST: UNKNOWN INDIA• Tribal ethos-166 separate tribes • Rich natural resources- Oil, Gas, Minerals,

Medicinal plants

• High literacy rate

• Mythological tides • Rich natural beauty • Annual floods • Strategic Position Gateway to South-East

Asia

NORTH EAST … A REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE UNITY IN DIVERSITY … INDIA’S SPECIALITY

TOURISM & DEVELOPMENT• Tourism provides direct benefits to the local community

and businesses.

• The Vision 2020 document released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008 for the North-eastern region earmarks infrastructure-led tourism development as one of the primary hopefuls for revenue generation.

• working with Ministry Of Civil Aviation for setting up a pilot training institute and upgrading airports. It has proposed to support a mountaineering and adventure sports institute.

• The NEC also proposes to support setting up heritage museums.

• Northeast India is considered to be one of the most favoured tourist spots in India by Globetrotters and Discovery Network's Travel & Living channel.

• People are attracted to the region by the richness of its culture and the sheer variety of its festivities, dress, cuisines and ethnicities.

NEGATIVE DRIVERS OR UNCERTAINITY

The drivers mentioned below could however pose obstacles to this future:

• Transport and Communication

• Ethnic Violence • Insurgent Extortion Networks • Negative Political Culture

• Image of Frontier • Militarisation of State Presence

• Pressure on Land

• Ethnic differences, political distrust between communities and demand for either ethnic based separate states within India or outright secession dominate public discourse in the Northeast.

• The state's inability to provide an alternative emancipating ideology and unimaginative bureaucratic structures reinforce the feeling of neglect and hostility towards imagined “others”.

• The writ of insurgent groups like the NSCN (IM), UNLF, DHD, UPDS and ULFA runs through the establishment of parallel governments, extortion networks and violence.

PROBLEMS TO RISE TOURISM IN NE

• Lack of infrastructure

• Communication bottlenecks

• Geographical isolation

• Ethnic clashes leading to political instability

• Growth of insurgent activities

• Lack of fund

• Absence of leadership and entrepreneurship ability

• Indifferent attitude of the Government both at State and Central level

• Defective socio-economic and political set up

• Lack of a proper tourism development policy of the Government

• Lack of people’s co-operation and consciousness • Lack of proper friendly investment atmosphere

• Absence of congenial atmosphere to attract the tourists and such many other factors.

ADDRESSING THE SECURITY RESTRICTIONS

Tour operators in the Northeast are keen on a review of the to promote tourism

• Restricted Area Permit (RAP)

• Protected Area Permit (PAP)

• Inner Line Permit (ILP)

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To discuss why the hotels and tourism destinations are becoming a soft target for the extremists.

• To analyze the impacts of terrorist activities on hospitality and tourism industry.

• To provide the various measures which can be useful in order to prevent the possible attacks on hotels and tourist destinations.

WHY TERRORISTS TARGET TOURISTS? • Tourists are easy to attack. Terrorism needs a great

amount of correctness, which in turn requires predictability.

• Tourists make better targets than the locals. Because terrorists often exist in the country where the attacks take place and the public is well aware of their existence.

• Most importantly, the targeting of tourists, particularly international tourists, can generate a great deal of attention, causing tourists to avoid travel to that part of the world.

EFFECT OF TERRORIST ATTACKS

• Unemployment

• Homelessness

• Deflation

• Airlines

• Hotels

• restaurants

MAJOR INSURGENT GROUP IN NEName Founded Area of

actionAllies Training Cadre

BDSF / NDFB

1986 Indo-Bhutan border

ULFA, KIA

Manas, Nilphamari (Bdesh)

600

ULFA 1979 Upper Assam

KIA,ISI, ALP

KIA, NSCN, Bdesh

1200

PLA 1978 Imphal Valley

PREPAK,KIA

Burma 200

NLFT 1989 Tripura IM Bdesh 700

NSCN(IM)

1988 Nagaland, Manipur, Barak

SDUFSEHR

Nagaland, Bdesh, Burma

2000+

NSCN(K) 1988 Mon, Tirap KIA Burma 2000+

OTHER INSURGENT GROUP

• Assam.▫ DHD, KNV, VCF, UTDF.

• Meghalaya.▫ ALMA, GNF, ANVC, HNLC.

• Manipur.▫ PREPAK, KYKL(O,T), KCP, KNA, KNO, KNF, UNLF, RJC, RPF, PRA,

PULF, NEMF, IRF, UILA.

• Tripura.▫ ATTF, TUJS, BNCT, BNLF, HLF/HPC.

• Arunachal Pradesh.▫ ULVA, UPVA, ULMA.

POSSITIVE EFFECT OF TERRORIST ATTACK ON TOURISM

• A new trend of ‘Terror Tourism’ is introduced.

• Showing places where attacks were held.

Short Term Impact

This type of impact is found immediately after terror attack

• Tourist fear to visit the destination

• Tourists feel insecure at such destination and try to leave the destination early.

• Tourist about to visit may either cancel or postpone their journey.

• Tour operators find it difficult to sell that particular destination.

• Once if tourist arrivals fall down stakeholders morale at destination becomes low and this creates further problem

IMPACT OF TERRORISM ON TOURISM

Long Term Impact

This type of impact is felt even after a period of couple of years.

•Tourists generally avoid visiting such destination.

•As they feel insecure even repeated tourist may dislike coming.

•Tour operates may loose interest as such destination become less profitable.

•Certain tourism entrepreneur closes their business as they face loss continuously.

•Original charm exist no more making it difficult for policy makers to rebuild the lost glory.

IMPORTANT MEASURES• Proper verification of employees

• Verification of suppliers and their people

• Knowing the guests properly

• Keep eye on the entrance

• Train the staff for emergency

• Hire the professionals

• Plan ahead

CONCLUSION

The study has presented the importance of tourism in the growth of a country and how terrorist attacks

effect the growth of tourism.

NO TERRORISM YES TO TOURISM

Thank You