Our Correspondent
Kohima | November 26
Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio today appealed to the Naga community as a whole to deal with the tourist very carefully and to bring out collective effort and responsibility to make the forthcoming Hornbill festival a grand success.
Speaking at the launching programme of Nagaland Tourist Police here at PHQ Kohima, he congratulated the police department and tourism department for the commendable job for launching Tourist police in the state and also making a centre to monitor and building the latest application of social media to provide safety and security to tourists.
He urged the Tourist police personnel to take the privilege and to come forward to deliver their best services and also to be the ambassadors. Rio also said that this Hornbill Festival will be ‘plastic free’ and appealed the people to used alternative like bamboo, cloth and paper bags.
Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton said Nagaland is joining some few states in the country to have separate Tourist Police Force for the service of the people and with the launching of Tourist Police, visitor will feel homely during their stay in the state.
Patton stated that Nagaland has many inherent advantages of being a tourist destination. Amongst other, its history, culture, geographical location, weather condition, its rich flora and fauna etc. makes it attractive to travelers. In order to make optimum utilisation of these inherent advantages to generate more economic activity, one area is the policing and security of tourist. Creation of specialised tourist police force will not only help in protection of Tourist but will enhance the appeal of Nagaland as a favoured ‘tourist destination’. We all know that travel and tourism are important economic activities in many parts of the world as it has a direct and induced positive impact to the local population.
He said that safety and security are vital in providing quality service in tourism. More than any other activities, the success or failure of a tourist destination depends on being able to provide a safe and secure environment to the visitors. For a progressive destination development in the parlance of tourism, the destination has to have an image of utmost safety and tourist friendliness, therefore urged the personnel of tourist police to identify the area for deployment to maintain safety and security of tourist, identifying what could be the probable source of exploitation while the tourist visit the destination, to partner with the service providers in reporting the security related issues, popularising Toll Free Number and other emergency App for quick and effective redressal and response to any tourist related crimes.
Patton also stated that it is also imperative to deploy Tourist Police at Railways Station, Airport, Check gates, Bus stands etc, the key point of entries where tourist are most susceptible to being cheated or being harassed, a dedicated round the clock integrated Control Room, including grievance redressal mechanism put in place, shall go a long way in promoting tourism industry in the State.
Protecting and serving are two essential qualities for a tourist destination striving to increase its popularity among visitors. Thus, tourist police is an important part of any destination image and I hope our Tourist Police will create good image of Nagaland to the visitors as they go back. He added Tourism and art & culture advisor Khehovi Yepthomi said that the launching of Tourist Police in Nagaland will be a “game changer”.
Stating that Nagas are very simple in nature, very kind, warm, welcoming, good hospitality and peace loving people, he said if we could harness and make use of all this potentialities in a right manner, the economy of the state will be improved and Nagaland will become the most prosperous state in the country.
