By The Editor
Due to rising population and scarcity of land for profitable agriculture people from rural areas are moving to the urban El Dorado to seek better alternative opportunities. Unfortunately the situation in growing urban areas offers limited scope and so the problem becomes from bad to worse. Plight of educated unemployed is becoming more acute day by day which plagues the society and ultimately leads to frustration and anger among the youths. Therefore it is mandatory for government to find ways and means in helping educated and qualified youths to rightfully earn their bread and butter with honour and dignity. It is often said that unemployed young people are a menace to the society but educated unemployed ones are the devil’s workshop. Hence prevention is better than cure before situation gets out of control. and one of the great avenues of employment is tourism.
Improvement in travel conditions, better and affordable transport facilities, rising incomes and longer periods of holidays have all played important part in the growth of tourism. People engaged in various economic activities for months and years really need some rest and diversion from their daily routine of monotonic life so that at the end of the travel they can resume work with fresh energy and renewed vigour. Tourism in broader sense implies people who travel on vacation to different destinations for educational or cultural reasons, for religious pilgrimages, for health reasons or simply to relax away from home and work. Tourism, therefore, involves large numbers of people as vacationers and as workers employing them. Vacationers are ready to spend substantive sum of money according to their planned budget provided they derive benefits and comforts. Tourist destination having better opportunities and facilities including hospitality are centres which attract travelers from different parts of the country as well as from other parts of the globe and therefore wide publicity measures are highly essential.
National People’s Party (NPP) national president Conrad K. Sangma on March 6 focused on creation of jobs, agriculture and tourism which will be given top priority by the government in next five years 2023-2028. Regarding tourism sector government can create multiple avenues for livelihood thus offering many opportunities in employment to qualified young boys and girls of the state. Since Assam is our neighbouring state it is therefore imperative for Meghalaya to cooperate in tourism sector so that tourists who visit Assam can also travel to Meghalaya. According to Assam’s official record in January 2023 there was a great jump in domestic tourists by 511 per cent and in foreign tourists by 763 per cent for the year 2022 as compared to 2021. Various programmes initiated by Assam government have proved successful and the state is optimistic of more growth. Assam is well connected with various parts of the country having excellent road infrastructure and peaceful conditions which is also known for spiritual, wildlife, river and adventure tourism.