TravTalk India Online Magazine
Assam Tourism has its thinking cap on and has developed a unique and interesting concept – Tea and Tee tourism – to lure more tourists to the state. It hopes to welcome at least 50,000 FTAs and more than 70,000 domestic tourists this year, promoting its tea estates and world-class golf courses.
Hazel Jain
Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) has started developing a unique concept of tourism called ‘Tea & Tee’, which clubs tea tourism with golf tourism. This was revealed by Jayanta Malla Baruah, Chairman, ATDC, on the sidelines of ATDC’s three- city roadshow that travelled to Ahmedabad, Pune and finally Mumbai. The roadshow was a joint effort between Department of Tourism, Government of Assam, in association with India Tourism, Mumbai (Ministry of Tourism, Government of India).
Elaborating on the new concept, Baruah explained, “Assam is a small state but we have more than 22 golf courses that are world-class, with nine-hole and 18-hole courses. If we include the small ones, it is more than 30 golf courses. A lot of these are located inside tea estates that also have tea bungalows that are unique to Assam.” Highlighting the growing numbers to the state, he said that Assam received more than 60,000 domestic tourists in 2018-19. Foreign Tourist Arrivals in the same period was more than 41,000. “We are expecting to cross 50,000 FTAs this year and at least 70,000-75,000 in domestic tourists,” he revealed.
Assam is a small state but has more than 22 world-class golf courses. A lot of these are located inside tea estates
According to reports, Assam government has sanctioned ₹300 crore to Assam Tourism in order to promote the state as a world-class tourist destination. Baruah said, “We are looking to invest in infrastructure under the PPP model. ATDC already has 84 lodges in Assam and we are now looking to get more star-category hotels in destinations outside Guwahati. We also released our Tourism Policy in 2018 for investment in all sectors including film tourism. We are offering huge incentives and many investors have taken advantage of this. More than ₹1200 crore worth of MoUs were signed in the tourism sector at our Advantage Assam event.”
He also revealed that ATDC was specifically targeting high- end tourists for destinations such as Majuli, which is touted to be the biggest river island in the world.
ATDC aims to attract over 15 lakh people this year to its annual river festival, Dwijing Festival, celebrated in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts.
