Editorial

Festival, Sure; Festive? Umm...
So, a Sikkim Snow Festival is being planned? Anyone not reading local papers [or noticing the hoardings around Gangtok] would not even have known that such an event was on the cards. Yes, there will, in all probability, be a grand inauguration, big announcements, a lot of self-congratulation, excitement, even some good ideas and maybe the Festival will be well hosted as well. Who knows, given the extreme weather sending heavy snowfall in North India [where parts have received snow after 50 years], there might even be some snowfall over Gangtok during the fest. But what will all this garner at the end of the day?

The Fest is not even a month away, and there has still been no advance promotion; not even a formal announcement, save a resolve among the stakeholders to organise the event in the hope to rekindle tourist interest in Sikkim after the 18 September Earthquake wiped out the entire ‘season’. The tourism stakeholders will recall that the concept of a Winter Fest is not new to Sikkim. Although tourist arrivals in winter months had improved in the recent years, it is still not ‘season’ time. What makes the latest edition even more challenging is that earthquake paranoia has still not worn off from the minds of prospective tourists, so even the possible plus that the Sikkim Snow Fest would have been a surprise for tourists who find themselves in Sikkim in February has only limited chances of delivering. With not enough advance promotion, it can be safely vouched that the Fest itself will not attract any ‘extra’ tourists. And therein lies the main problem with all the tourism festivals held around the State – lack of publicity. A tourist festival needs to be promoted widely and would still take some years before it becomes a must-do holiday for the regular visitors or the most-recommended event for tour and travel operators. Tourist festivals in Sikkim are almost always last-minute, with even locals finding it difficult to keep the date. Since they are intended for the tourists, the promotion has to be at least months in advance and the schedules decided even a year ahead. Granted, the proposed Sikkim Snow Fest did not enjoy this luxury of time, but once the decision was taken [as it surely must have, since posters are already up], no time should have been wasted. It is already teetering towards becoming a Festival, but one which will have to be festive without tourists.
Now, with less than a month left at hand, time is surely running out. With promotion now unlikely to bring in tourists, the focus should be expanded to ensure that the event makes big news. Not necessarily mainstream media news, although that should be attempted as well, but more importantly in the form of coverage by travel writers. Those planning the event should make an extra effort to invite as many travel writers and publications to Sikkim for the event as possible. The stalls and cultural shows might not interest them, but once they are here, Sikkim in winter will definitely impress them [so long as they are assisted in travelling and not tied down to protocol events], and when they write, they will not only entice many to visit Sikkim, but might also rekindle interest among the repeat visitors. Of course, the Festival will happen even without this presence, but it will hardly be a festive harbinger for the revival of tourism.