Despite the winter chill, thousands of visitors flocked to attend the ongoing North East Festival at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi. After two years of pandemic-induced lull, the festival is back in its vibrant avatar. The four-day carnival which began on December 23 has witnessed impressive footfall of foodies, shoppers, and music and travel enthusiasts. Curious visitors were seen enquiring travel prospects and packages; several showed interest to learn about the rich culture and heritage of the region through professional tourism courses.“I have read about North East India but never got a chance to visit the region. However, I would love to plan a trip to the tea gardens of Assam. I tasted some regional varieties at the North East Festival and was amazed to know about their origin and other details. My favourite was Bluepea Tea and Singpho tribe’s Phalap tea. I even ordered a few kgs of different varieties from two stalls at the fest. I also bought a couple of Naga and Manipuri attires. The motifs, fabric, and colours are mindblowing,” said an aspiring fashion designer Chandni Makhija from NIIFT, Delhi.
Supreme Court advocate HarkrishnaNahata and his family and friends were seen indulging in juicy Pork Ribs, Fish Fry, and Chicken Momos, paired with Zutho[Naga rice beer] and enjoying the winter sun. When asked if this was their first at the festival, Nahata said, “NEF is like our home; we attend it every year. This time I even got my friends to see the vibrant culture of the region. I have been to Meghalaya, Manipur, and Assam. Next year I am planning for Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh with a group of ten friends. I love the Northeast and its people; they are extremely humble, hospitable, and loving. I usually prefer staying at homestays. I am in talks with a travel agency and super excited to be exploring Shergaon in Arunachal; which has been on my list for a long time.”The North East Festival has always aimed to build a formidable investment climate to transform the economic fortunes of the region and create a flourishing business and tourism destination in India. Chief Organiser of the festival Shyamkanu Mahanta said, “We want to make an important contribution to the economic development of the region and provide opportunities for tourism and commercial outcomes by showcasing our diverse culture and heritage through various initiatives; such as B2B meets, tourism awareness programmes, and showcasing our food, music, art and craft. We have been able to help bring out the tourism potential of North East region and connect travel enthusiasts with tour and travel entrepreneurs. I strongly feel our festival has the full potential to boost tourism in the region.”Firingoti Curated Tours by Sangeeta BarooahPisharoty and Anuj Kumar Boruah, who are into high-end experiential curated tours exclusively designed for North East India received queries from tour operators and travelers about their offerings and packages. Firingoti Co-Founder Sangeeta BarooahPisharoty said, “We provide bespoke services to traveler looking to explore the region in its true sense and go beyond Instagram updates. North East Festival has helped us to connect with potential travel operators and tourists alike.”
Participants Sanjay Borah and Arnab A Garg of SAI Holidays were elated to have received fantastic responses. “Visitors are enquiring our packages to different states of the region. We have also cracked 20 B2B collaboration opportunities. North East Festival is an excellent platform to get exposure and to raise awareness about our diverse offerings; be it gastronomy, handicrafts, music, heritage and more. We’re very happy to see people showing interest to visit North East.”Tea entrepreneur Ranjit Baruah and owner of the popular Aromica Tea, sharing his thoughts on tea tourism said, “We have recently seen a surge in tea tourism. It has the greatest potential for generating income and employment opportunities in the North East states. Some Assam tea tourism entrepreneurs are curating tea tourism trails wherein tourists can stay at the British-style tea bunglows, pluck tea leaves alongside the workers, experience first-hand how tea is processed at a tea factory and then proceed to taste the same with the tea master to appreciate, and understand what makes teas from our the state one of the best in the world. We have full potential to now welcome and educate tourists on the potential of our reserves. North East Festival is doing a fabulous job in highlighting the prospectsand giving our tea industry the much-needed exposure. Our Aromica Tea stall is also seeing great responses; people are sampling our teas and are willing to explore more.”The festival, on the third day, has some scintillating fashion shows lined-up and power-packed musical performances by Trance Effect, Sangpoispo, TabaChake, Teri Miko, and Assam’s heartthrob Zubeen Garg.
