Date: Aug 13, 2022
On the occasion of the 75th Azadi Ka Amrit Mohotsav and NEHU celebrating 50 glorious years, the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management organized a Tourism Awareness & Capacity Building Programme on August 13th, 2022 at Kongthong Village. This village is nominated best tourism village by UNWTO due to unique tradition whistling of new born child given by her mother which is called ‘rwai sur iaw-bei’ and this village also adopted by Professor Rakesh Sinha, Hon’ble Rajya Sabha Member. The main aim of this programme was to promote rural tourism by encouraging local community with active participation in tourism and hospitality related activities as well as to encourage the village youths to participate in tourism centric skill development programmes. The awareness programme was coordinated by Dr. Sharad Kulshreshtha and supported by Mr. Rothell Khongsit, a local youth leader and secretary Kongthong Indigenous Agro Tourism Cooperative Society.
On this special occasion of 75th Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Professor Prabha Shankar Shukla Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, NEHU, flagged off the NEHU Bus from Central Library, NEHU, Shillong with the faculty members, staff, research scholars and students of Department of Tourism and Hotel Management for the Kongthong Village at 9:30 AM on 13th August 2022.
Before reaching the Kongthong Village, there was visit two on the roadside Swer and Mawrah villages where the national flags and flex banners depicting the Unsung Freedom Fighters of Meghalaya has been presented to the these two Sordors to great honor and remember their sacrifices for independence of India as well as further discussion on tourism awareness and capacity programme.
The Inaugural function of this Tourism Awareness Programme was held at school ground at Kongthong Village and it was chaired by the Sordar and Secretary Kongthong Village with main coordination of Shri Rothell Kongsit Kongtham, The function started with the welcome speech of Shri Rothell Kongsit Kongtham, felicitated to Prof. Saurabh Kumar Dixit, Registrar ((In-charge) NEHU, Dr Punit Gautam, Head, Department of Tourism & Hotel Management, and Dr. Sharad Kumar Kulshreshtha Coordinator of this one day Tourism Awareness and Capacity Building Program.
The programme started with a speech from Prof. Saurabh K. Dixit, Registrar (In-charge). He highlighted some of the strategies for promoting rural tourism. This was then followed by the speech from Dr Punit Gautam, Head, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management. He mentioned the importance of community participation in the promotion and development of tourism. The awareness program was further continued with the sharing speeches of research scholars of department. Ms. Sabrina Lyngdoh research scholar and In-charge IITTM Shillong, speech on tour guides skills and training programmes offered by IITTM, Shillong. This was followed by Mr. Ashok Kumar, research scholar, & Sr. faculty along with Ms. Deborah R. S. Passah talked about the importance of skill training programs in hospitality and highlighted various courses offered by IHM, Shillong. The others scholars, Miss Kimberly C. Langstieh and Mr Kular Skhem Mukhim have also enlighten and encouraged youths to participate such villages tourism development program, Mr. Abhijit Abraham handled photography of entire program, and Mr. Nihal Jaiswal well-coordinated bus transport for the students of MTTM.
The Sordar and the village’s elders were facilitated by the professors of the Tourism and Hotel Management Department and were Department and were given portrays of four great freedom fighters of Meghalaya to them, which were followed by the distribution of T-shirts among village youth volunteers, a Trophy for friendly football match, and certificates for the participants. The programme came to a close with sharing feedback of participants and with the vote of thanks by the, Dr Sharad Kulshreshtha and concluded with the National Anthem.
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