With one white palace and thousands of white ducks, Tripura spreads the red carpet for international tourists

After coming to power, the BJP-IPFT government planned to turn Neermahal into a modern tourist destination with high-speed Internet, modern cuisine, round-the-year boating and, more importantly, water to row the boats on. Earlier this year, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced an ambitious plan to distribute 50,000 white ducklings to fishermen who live in the vicinity of Rudrasagar Lake. “If the white ducks swim in the lake, thousands of tourists will come from different parts of India and abroad to visit Neermahal. Tourism will be developed,” Deb announced this August.

As per reports from the Ministry of Tourism, Tripura has registered the highest number of foreign tourists among the eight Northeastern states in 2017 with 13,02,742 tourists visiting the state in the last three years. The numbers have only increased each year. Interestingly, the number of foreign tourists more than doubled from the 35,619 in 2015-16 to 80,094 in 2017-18. Rs. 3.23 crore was earned as revenue from different tourist spots in 2017 alone, Rs. 51 lakh higher than the previous year.

However, it appears that Deb’s dreams of thousands of tourists flocking in has to wait a bit as travel gurus highlight the shortage of proper hotels and communication infrastructure as hurdles for large scale tour operations.
At the Tourism Mart organised here last week tour operators, bloggers, travel gurus from 18 countries were called in and shown Neermahal and other tourist destinations.

The white and red palace, which showcases the exquisite taste and heritage of Tripura’s 500-year-old Manikya dynasty rule, is now expected to be the Lode Star to drive tourists into the state.

Andre Cloutier, sales director of India Travel Pundits based in Montreal, Canada said, “Tripura is a great place. I am very pleased to see the culture, ambience, pleasant people, the rich ethnic variety here. There is good potential for tourism to thrive here.” Appreciating how the state government has opened its tourism for the global community, he added: ”But there is lot of work to be done. They need many more hotels here, connectivity needs to be developed. It will take 5-10 years for tourism to fully thrive here.”

Cloutier has had preliminary discussion with several tour operators based in Tripura about collaborative tour packages, but he does not think the state has potential to become more than an extension to existing tour packages at the moment. “It is not likely that people will come from the USA, Canada or other places to see Tripura or any of these states alone. We have to work together,” he said.

Myanmar-based travel writer and journalist Sann Oo, among the state guests at the tourism mart, said his first visit to Tripura has been encouraging. “I feel the road condition and communication infrastructure is good here. People are nice, there is good potential for tourism. But the Internet connectivity is slow. Digital communication needs to be developed to attract tourists,” he said.

Garima Shamsukha works with Canada-India travel organiser Services International Limited said: “I have heard of different tribes and their traditions in NE India. There is amazing wildlife, royal palaces, lovely architecture. But frankly, there are palaces all around India. If people have to come to the Northeast, it should be for nature and people. Tourists will need more hotels, many more hotels. Roads need to be developed. It will take time for tourism to properly develop here. But it is a good start.”

Australia India Travel & Tourism Council chairman Sandip Hor, who has visited Northeast India before, feels it was high time tourism was opened up for global players. “It will take time. It is sort of an incubation phase. Give it a few years time. There is a young Chief Minister in Tripura, I am sure he will do the needful,” he added.

Earlier this year, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced an ambitious plan to distribute 50,000 white ducklings to fishermen who live in the vicinity of Rudrasagar Lake.

Ajit Kumar Paul, a veteran tour operator here, said he have seen governments take such initiatives earlier as well. “Foreign delegates come, visit and go back. But they have a habit of forgetting once they leave. It is our job to make sure that doesn’t happen. So, we shall keep on communicating. I feel there will be real action this time,” Paul said.

On November 22, inaugurating the International Tourism Mart, the chief minister said the state has potential with its sites like Unakoti and Pilak as well as the Tripura Sundari Temple and Neermahal. He said his government would provide land, security and all other support to investors who want to set up tourism initiatives in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The CM also said he would keep getting back to the international delegates who joined the Mart for real results.

Meanwhile, 58-year-old boatman Tajul Islam has noticed that tourist footfalls have been on the rise. “There were some American tourists who visited Neermahal couple of months back. I took them over to the palace myself. There are more tourists come these days. It is good for us,” said Islam, who has been ferrying tourists for 21 years. Nihar Das, another boatman, feels the government initiative to popularise Neermahal and other tourist destinations will pay off. “I hope these foreign people will go back and send others here.”