With a view to develop sustainable and responsible tourist destinations and promote sustainable tourism in the country, Ministry of Tourism (MoT) in association with IITTM, UNEP and RTSOI organized the second regional workshop on Development of Sustainable and Responsible Tourist Destinations at Guwahati on 28^thApril, 2023. The workshop witnessed wide participation of senior Government officials and tourism industry stakeholders from the States/ Union Territory of the North Eastern region viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Nagaland.

Shri. Anil Oraw, Regional Director, North East India welcomed the States and set the context for the workshop. In his address, he highlighted the need for sustainability in tourism and significance of Centre, State and Industry collaboration in achieving this objective.

Shri Uttank Joshi, Assistant Director General, Ministry of Tourism shared success stories of Swadesh Darshan 1.0, the flagship centrally sponsored scheme of Ministry of Tourism for creating tourism infrastructure in the country. He also gave an overview of Swadesh Darshan 2.0 and illustrated how it integrates sustainability in destination development. 

Shmt. Akanksha Garg, representative of RTSOI deliberated with the participants on the need for sensitizing the tourist and creating a demand for responsible travel. He introduced the Responsible Travellers campaign and explained ways to educate tourists about responsible behaviour. 

Ms. Manisha Chaudhary shared some landmark efforts like the Global Tourism Plastics initiative and the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism launched in November 2021 in climate change CoP 26. Interventions at State Level and guidelines on plastic waste management in tourism sector were highlighted. She encouraged stakeholders to join such initiatives and set targets to address crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss in alignment with national and global commitments for sustainable development.

Presentations were also made by representatives of State Tourism Departments of North Eastern region, calling attention to their best practices in sustainable tourism. The session witnessed strength of North Eastern States in having various sustainable tourism policies and development interventions such as Homestay Tourism Policies, plastic bans to maintain cleanliness, unique conservation model to increase forestation and protecting local species, carrying capacity bases ecotourism models, 

Central Nodal Agency for Sustainable Tourism, Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management briefed the participants about the salient features of Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI). The participants also took the Travel for LiFE pledge to seek their commitment towards travelling responsibly.   

Grassroots industry stakeholders presented their innovative ways of implementing sustainable tourism and success stories in different regions of eastern regions to create tangible positive impact. 

The workshop strengthened the engagement among the Ministry of Tourism, State Governments/UT Administrations and Industry stakeholders towards achieving Sustainability Goals.