Editorial:Stay Committed to Tourism Recovery Mission

Aamir Khan was in town on a brief shoot. Cops from around the country are in station for the 42nd All India Police Science Congress. Some time back, veteran footballers from around the world played an exhibition match in Sikkim and earlier this week, the Sikkim Snow & Culture Fest got underway. All these are in obvious celebration of Sikkim as a recommended tourist destination and gestures towards conveying to the world that the 18 Sept 2011 earthquake, despite its severity, has not impaired either Sikkim’s ability to play a good host or dulled the obvious appeal of this place. None of these initiatives have however received any media coverage beyond the immediate neighbourhood and although this newspaper has criticised the poor promotional skills of event organisers in the past, it needs to also be accepted that positive developments and initiatives do not interest mass media in our country any more. Unfortunate as the pursuit of sensationalism is, it is even more so in the case of Sikkim. Already marginalised in central planning processes because of its negligible numeric presence in the Parliament [an MP each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha don’t count for much even in these times of coalition politics], the small population of the State is also overlooked in the TRP/readership-regime which seems to be driving news content nowadays. This leads to a situation where the last ‘awareness’ about Sikkim for the majority whose world-view is formed by TV News is of the earthquake and the devastation it wrought here last September. Understandably then, when time comes for them to plan a holiday, even if Sikkim is presented as an option, it is struck off because of its earthquake devastated status, which remains the only news update on the State in mass media. The goodwill which Sikkim enjoys cannot be capitalised unless word gets out that tourism, for which the State is ready again, will assist the process. Media coverage in the immediate week after the earthquake helped bring attention to the destruction here, and follow up stories on how Sikkim has fared since and what it is working towards, will help convey the message that Sikkim is vying [and able] for tourist visits again.
This is not happening, and for reasons mentioned earlier, unlikely to. But that does not mean that tourism stakeholders and planners give up. The tourism boom, it must be recalled, is of very recent vintage in Sikkim and grew essentially from a variety of factors like improvements in infrastructure, creation of new assets and positive word of mouth publicity. The more senior tourism service providers will confirm that a visit to a Union Minister less than two decades ago had served them a shocker when he enquired whether one had to come via Bangkok to reach Gangtok in Sikkim. It is from such ignorance about Sikkim that the State has grown into a prominent tourist destination. The September setback has been severe, but not as debilitating as the restrictive travel regulations and widespread disinterest out of which the industry grew. As someone recently pointed out, had a world-class football facility [in the Paljor Stadium] or an impressive venue for conferences and seminars [in Chintan Bhawan], not been created, the galaxy of football stars who played an exhibition match here recently or All India Police Science Congress would not have been possible. The same logic extends to the 135ft tall statue of Guru Rinpoche at Samdruptse and the Char Dhaam at Solophok which were both ridiculed as plans too grandiose to come true, but still came through and now attract both the devout and the tourists. As the State and it people persevere to reclaim appeal with prospective visitors, it is important that the instinctive scepticism is given a rest and more collaborative and enterprising efforts made to sustain the Tourism Recovery Mission.