Sikkim Tourism to soon have a new tourism policy

Sikkim Tourism is going to finalise a new tourism policy soon after it gets a go-ahead from the government, C. Zangpo, the secretary of Sikkim Tourism, has announced. Intended to attract more tourism-related investment in the state, the new draft policy already contains certain recommendations for financial incentives that would be given out to the investors, said Zangpo.

“There are certain financial incentives involved in the draft, so government approval is required. We are currently waiting for the government stamp for the policy,” said Zangpo. The ultimate objective of formulating this new tourism policy is to attract more tourists to the state and get back the tourism economy back to its usual self.
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The tourism in Sikkim was affected badly by the Gorkhaland agitation. Zangpo revealed more about this scenario and said, “It affected quite adversely. Till June 18, Sikkim received 11.75 lakh tourists. After that for next 100 days it was just zero,” he said. “However, people have started coming back slowly”.

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Revealing more on the state government’s plan on boosting tourism in Sikkim, Zangpo revealed that the state is giving the highest amount of priority to eco-tourism and homestay tourism. In fact, the state tourism board has reportedly supported as many as 730 homestays across the state already and all of them are widely popular among tourists visiting the state. “Our focus on eco-tourism and homestay infrastructure has helped in curtailing the rural-urban exodus,” Zangpo said while talking about this subject.

Apart from all of this, what is really making Zangpo hopeful about the inflow of tourists to the state is the recent launch of the Pakyong airport, which according to him will start receiving scheduled flights from December 2017 or latest by January 2018.