Marketing Manipur

Manipur Tourism Forum is an association with a difference – one where its members as well as executive committee don’t necessarily belong to the travel industry. Instead, they bring their own area of expertise to the table so that everyone benefits. TRAVTALK finds out more about how this works.

Hazel Jain

Manipur Tourism Forum is the perfect example of people from varied fields coming together for a common cause. The members have been taking part in various events and exhibitions in their professional line and most of them were regular delegates in the one of the key business summit of the region – NE Business Summit.

Sharing more details of how this entity functions, and functions well, is Khuraijam Krishnan Singh, its President. He says, “Various like-minded delegates felt the need to form an association with the main objective of promoting tourism activities in the state of Manipur considering the potential of tourism of the state. As emphasising and focusing on tourism will automatically promote other allied industry like handloom and handicraft,
horticulture and human resources, through tourism members saw a potential game changer for the economy of the state. The idea gave birth to formation of Manipur Tourism Forum in the year 2012.”

Apart from the tourism professionals, the association has two leading doctors of the state, legal consultants, IT professionals, media, print and advertising professionals and social workers, who have keen interest in tourism and who were ready to volunteer for the promotion and development of tourism in the state. It is noteworthy that two of its members have now been elected to the Manipur Legislative Assembly one of them is a former IPS officer.

Singh elaborates, “As the members of Manipur Tourism Forum are from different professions (some of them leaders in their respective fields) with a common goal of promoting tourism, the diverse expertise across various platforms come handy in identifying unique tourism products that have potential.” The forum was registered in 2012.

Activities

Manipur Tourism Forum has been organising various tourism awareness programmes, capacity building programmes, seminars and trainings. “Our effort is to complement the government as well as the tourism industry at large for promoting the true potential of Manipur’s tourism, and we have been working in close association with Manipur government for development and promotion of tourism,” Singh adds.

Singh says that Manipur has tremendous potential in terms of arts and culture, scenic and virgin locations, handicraft, adventure tourism, eco-tourism, remembrance tourism, etc. The forum is working on a collaborative approach with the Tourism Department of Manipur for the development of tourism products, destinations, capacity building, etc.

“For long there has been a negative perception about Manipur as a disturbed area regarding the law and order situation. The negative perception has to be cleared in the mindset of prospective tourists through positive branding exercise. Infrastructure is also another important aspect of tourism which needs special attention. In recent times, apart from improvement of the road connectivity and infrastructure, Manipur now is now becoming one of the most peaceful states. Being on the stride of the Asian Highway No 1 and 2, Manipur is the border state with Myanmar where there is tremendous potential for caravan, road trips, cross-border tourism,” Singh elaborates.

Moreover, Manipur, with the largest convention centre in the entire NE region, is a great destination for MICE. “With proper marketing and festivals like Sangai Festival, Manipur’s future in tourism is indeed a promising one. There is a constant support needed from the Ministry of Tourism, DoNER for the promotion of NE and Manipur through Expos,” Singh shares.