Rowing into adventure

Guwahati, March 16: Assam is planning to line up a bouquet of adventure sports like bungee jumping, rafting, angling, cycling and trekking to draw tourists from round the world.

The first step has already been taken with Dispur signing a memorandum of understanding with an US-based firm, Xola Consulting Inc, to identify the hotspots for adventure sports.

Acknowledging that the state has signed the MoU with Xola, tourism minister Rockybul Hussain said they are expecting the US-based firm to submit its report by next month. “We have taken the firm’s help to prepare a roadmap to develop the adventure and eco-tourism sectors in the state. We are hoping to make adventure tourism a reality soon,” he said. “We are also working on a tourism policy which is focussing, besides eco-adventure, on cultural and pilgrimage tourism. The policy is likely to be adopted very soon. There is a lot of unexpolred potential. We now want to tap these, as tourism will be an important avenue for employment generation.

The consulting firm will prepare an adventure tourism development index — a comparative measure of adventure travel market competitiveness for countries worldwide with stress on identifying areas of potential growth that can directly benefit local communities and encourage environmental and cultural preservation.

“It will be more than package tours. It will provide reliable, unbiased reports to the global adventure travel community of the state’s enduring natural and cultural attractions. It will also help assure global tourists that Assam is safe and a welcoming destination for adventure. The index is important for emerging markets,” an official in the tourism department said today.

The official said the groundwork has begun with representatives of the firm having toured and assessed sites at Dehing-Patkai, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, and Jorhat.

The team is now touring Majuli and will later visit Haflong and Karbi Anglong. “The exact nature of the adventure sports will be known only after we get the report, but everything that excites a foreigner will be there,” he said.

The firm will help identify and evaluate the USPs of the sites and provide specific recommendation on how to develop these places. It will also help the state implement, market and monitor the project by leveraging local resources.

At present some private tours conduct eco-camps at places like Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Majuli and Kaziranga, but the eco-adventure sector is largely untapped despite the state’s huge potential, the official said.

And to top it all, the state tourism department is planning to promote Brahmaputra as an international destination for river cruise. “A modern cruise liner to cater to upmarket global clients is under construction,” the official added.