A team of fifty five strong contingent including students and faculties of Indian Institute of Technology, Indore is on a 5 days tour to Manipur hosted by National Institute of Technology Manipur under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme of Government of India where students are exposed to various iconic sites of the state and culture.

In one of the programme the students and visiting members were addressed by Manipur’s leading industrialist Dr. Th. Dhabali Singh, the CMD of BABINA Group of Companies who presented a short historical background of the culturally rich state of North East India.

While speaking about tourism potential of Manipur, he first sensitised the global scenario and informed the young audience that tourism contributes 13.9% of world’s GDP, generates employment for 311 million i.e. 11.8% of world’s total employment.

He echoed the tourism sector provides one in twelve jobs in the world. He stated that the tourism sector is the largest job provider in the country with 79.86 million direct and indirect jobs as of FY 2020. It is projected to expand to US $ 125 billion by 2027 according to FICCI estimates.

Explaining the Indian tourism market he stated that 31.4 million foreign tourists visited India in 2019 and 2321 million domestic tourist visits were made across India. However, it is seen that in 2016 Northeast recorded 77.13 Lakh domestic tourist visits which is only 0.47 of the total domestic traffic. Further he echoed that these data shows that mainland Indians visit less to the NE region.

Encouraging why one should visit Northeast India, Dr. Dhabali stated that NE India is a relatively unexplored paradise, it has different cultures, tribes, languages and food with a heavenly scenic beauty, amazing unique destinations. Northeast is now quickly becoming India’s hottest destination.PM Modi also believes that NE India has huge potential, stated Dr. Singh. He informed that the Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned sixteen new projects worth 1300 crore in 2022.

Dr Singh also explained that with better infrastructure tourist inflow has increased in Manipur over the past years and 1,67 Lakh domestic tourist as well as 12000 foreign tourist has visited Manipur in 2019. He says that earlier Foreign tourist visits were only around 400 and this increase of almost 300% growth is visible due to lifting of restrictions for foreign tourists to the state of Manipur by the Union Home Ministry as well as availability of better infrastructures..

Dr. Dhabali believes that Manipur has lots of potential to grow in the Tourism sector as it has the connectivity which is one of the best in NE India and within the coming two years even the Rail connectivity will reach Imphal. Manipur offers some good exotic destinations, a exotic food trail, natural and wildlife sites, adventure tourism sites, world War II trails as 50 thousand soldiers were killed during the war,

To promote tourism, Dr. Singh believes that we need to change the perception about NE India from a disturbed region to a progressive one and brand building exercise is the need of the hour. ‘I think we require a brand ambassador to promote our state’, he says.

A mesmerising cultural program was showcased by the students of JN Dance Academy which the visiting students of IIT Indore along with their faculties wholeheartedly cheerfully enjoyed.
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Speaking at the sideline of the event Dr. Dhabali Singh said that this unique programme of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ is going to be a game changer for Manipur’s tourism growth as the students will take fond memories home and the region’s perception shall slowly change from negativity to that of a hot destination.