Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate a four-day event here on Sunday to highlight the Northeast region’s various potentials like eco-tourism, culture, heritage and business. The ‘Destination North East-2020’ is a calendar event of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region conceptualised with the objective of taking the northeastern region to other parts of the country and bringing them closer together in order to strengthen national integration, an official statement said.

The home minister will inaugurate the event through video conference while Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh will be the guest of honour. For ‘Destination North East 2020’, the theme is ‘The Emerging Delightful Destinations’, which speaks of the tourism destinations emerging stronger and more attractive when the sector picks up momentum.

The programme focuses mostly on tourism and coincides with World Tourism Day which falls on September 27. The four-day programme will feature audio visual presentation of the tourist spots of the states and the region, messages from state icons and achievers, introduction to prominent local entrepreneurs and virtual exhibition of handicraft, traditional fashion, and local products, the statement said.

Earlier, this week unveiling the logo and theme song of the festival, Singh said the ‘Destination North East’ event has been travelling across the country — from Varanasi to New Delhi or to Chandigarh. He said the festival is not just about tourism, but it’s an invitation to the organisations and specially to the young entrepreneurs who would like to avail the advantage of unexplored potentials of the region.

Singh said the northeastern region will be one of the favourite tourist and business destinations of India post-COVID-19 and will be an important engine for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of Atmanirbhar Bharat by focussing on “Vocal for Local”. He said the event is also an effort to make everyone explore the local destinations rather than going anywhere abroad.

The minister said people should take a pledge to ‘visit local, travel local and explore local’, thus giving a boost to the local tourism and hospitality industry. Moreover, he said, by remaining coronavirus-free mostly, the Northeast offers a very safe and attractive tourist destination in the entire World.

What the Northeastern region has to offer: Eco-tourism: Northeastern region is ideal for both passive and adventure forms of eco-tourism with wildlife sanctuary, parks, good scenic beauty, waterfalls, forests etc. The region has much to offer for the active adventure segment including river rafting among others, trekking of various grades and levels, rock climbing, hang gliding etc, the statement said.

Culture: Culture is an important aspect and has the potential to attract selective culture tourists to Northeastern region. The diverse and rich tribal heritage and culture is what differentiates Northeast with the rest of India.

Another major differentiator is the rich and varying arts and crafts across the eight Northeastern states. Here unlike most places, handicrafts are part of everyday life. One significant aspect is the local community’s active participation towards increasing tourist-community cultural interfaces.

Heritage: Heritage tourism has picked up considerably in the Region with a participatory approach where tourists also get to actively participate than just seeing the monuments, old tea estates etc. Religious pilgrimage: The region has many famous and old religious spots, which have been integrated with national tourism circuits for the benefit of the pilgrims.

Business: In view of attractive natural environment and growing trends of outbound business meets, the NER also offers ample opportunities for business tourism segment. Domestic and international connectivity, High-end hotels, Convention Centres, resort based convention facilities etc. have all contributed to the expansion of this sector, the statement said..