Shillong, October 6: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said the violence witnessed in the State had a direct impact on the tourism sector and, in turn, affected local stakeholders, young people and the wider economy, as the government stepped up efforts to restore tourist confidence and bring the sector back to normalcy. Acknowledging that tourism had suffered a major setback following the August 19 violence, Sangma said the sector was now showing signs of gradual recovery, while stressing that sustained efforts would be required to rebuild confidence among visitors and tourism stakeholders.
The Chief Minister’s remarks came against the backdrop of widespread disruption reported by tourism stakeholders following the August 19 violence, with cancellations reportedly reaching 80–90 per cent and fresh bookings continuing to remain below pre-incident levels. The setback has had wider implications for an industry that supports a large network of hotels, homestays, tour operators, taxi services, restaurants, guides, local businesses and young people dependent on tourism-related employment and income.
Sangma said the consequences of violence ultimately fall on the State’s own people and stakeholders, arguing that such incidents do not resolve underlying grievances but instead risk causing further economic damage. “Absolutely. We have to be aware that when such situations happen, then it is our own stakeholders, our own people, our own youth, they get affected, and therefore violence in this form does not solve anybody’s problem or does not really help anybody.”
“In fact, as you have mentioned, the tourism sector has suffered majorly, but we are now recovering back from it,” he said.
Replying to a query on the extent of the tourism sector’s losses following the August 19 violence and the government’s measures to restore tourist confidence, Sangma said the administration was working on multiple fronts to rebuild confidence, including strict action against those involved in the violence and measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
“All efforts are being made to ensure that we built up the confidence that involves and includes, a strict action being taken by the government against individuals who were involved in that violence, and also ensuring that in the future also, we don’t have such incidents, and we would like to take this opportunity to appeal,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister also appealed to organisations and stakeholders to pursue their grievances through established democratic and institutional mechanisms rather than resorting to violence, warning that such actions could have consequences far beyond the immediate incident.
“In fact, to all Our stakeholders and to all organizations that we need to realize that there are consequences of the actions that we take. And while we have got issues That we need to voice out and concerns are there, these have to be done in a proper manner in a proper platform and through a proper procedure and violence is not the answer,” he said.
Sangma underlined that renewed unrest could further damage Meghalaya’s economy at a time when the tourism industry is attempting to recover from the disruption. He said the impact would eventually be felt by ordinary people whose livelihoods depend directly or indirectly on tourism.
“And violence will only lead to further damaging of our economy our tourism sector especially which will ultimately affect our own people where we have seen in the past, the overall tourism sector has been affected, but we are working now, and we’re seeing that this situation is improving slowly but steadily, and from the government side,” Sangma said.
He said the government would continue its efforts to restore normalcy and rebuild confidence in Meghalaya as a tourist destination.
“As I said, all efforts will be made to ensure that we can bring back normalcy in this situation,” the Chief Minister said.
