The three day festival organized at Assamlingzey Senior Secondary School had included a variety of programmes: felicitation to local gentry of the village above 80 year, educational fair cum conference and musical night by renowned rock singers from Kathmandoo.

There were 29 stalls put up by locals, government departments and NGOs. The most impressive among these were the traditional Nepali, Lepcha and Bhutia huts built at the venue where traditional breweries of millets Tongba, Tinpaney, Chang, Nigar and food items like Sekuwas, Sel Roti, Tarul were served to customers inside the hut. The customers were not only enjoying the traditional food but also the traditional environment. They were given Radhi (blankets made of sheep’s wool) to sit on while having their food and drinks.

Though, such a fest has been organised for the first time in the village, there was huge gathering of locals as well as outsiders.

According to Mr. Himmat Rai, publicity secretary of the organization, the three day tourism fest was organized not only to promote tourism but the programme was also used as a platform to discuss various burning topics like terrorism and quality education in the state. The experts in the respective fields were also invited to discuss on the subject.

According to the Vision 2020 Document, Sikkim is far ahead of the other Northeastern States in terms of the number of tourist arrivals.

Apart from Assamlingzey, in Sikkim there are more than 10 villages where such village fests are organized in a grand manner to woo domestic and foreign tourists.

According to Mrs. Prava Rai, joint secretary (Public Relation and Publicity) of the tourism department, Kanchendzong festival of Pelling, Namchi Mahotsav, Mangan musical festival, Gangtok winter fest, Ravangla discover, winter fest of Darap are organized by local organizations and villagers every year.

These festivals will help promote village tourism. For this purpose, the state tourism department also supports the organizers by providing some funds. “Last years we had given Rs.30 lakh to six tourism festivals of Mangan, Ravangla, Namchi, Jorethang, Hee-burmiok and Aritar. We will increase the budget of the programme according to the performance of the programme and numbers,” Mrs. Rai said.

Earlier, March and October was considered as the tourist season in the state. However, for the last two years, the tourist season has become a round the year affair in the state. The reason is there are many programmes like winter village tourism fests organized in many villages in winter to woo tourists and that has resulted in good footfall of tourists in the state.

“We are trying to put the concept in the mind of tourists that the tourist season is a round the year affair in the state by organizing many tourist festivals, coming up with innovative events like mountain biking, skiing, trekking and others in winter which was earlier called the lean period of the tourism business in the state,” Mr. Palzor Lachungpa, president of Travel Agent Association of Sikkim (TAAS), the largest organization of the state said.

He also said that last year, TAAS had organized skiing sports in Yumthang, North Sikkim. This year also they have a plan to organize Skiing in Kupup, near Nathula border and Yumathang.

Besides Skiing, the department is also promoting adventure tourism like mountain biking, white water rafting and trekking. The first Kanchundzonga International Mountain biking expedition was organized by the tourism department last year. “It was the first mountain biking expedition organized in the country. The expedition was so successful that this year’s 2nd Expedition of the competition got booked by the national and international participants three months before its beginning, said Mr. B.R. Subba, joint secretary of the department.

According to the Vision 2020 Document, Sikkim is far ahead of the other Northeastern States in terms of the number of tourist arrivals. 

The document further explains that Sikkim is far ahead of the other states in terms of infrastructure and preparedness for the tourists. This is probably due to the lack of any history of insurgency in the state.

The educated locals, therefore, make the most from tourism by actively involving themselves in the different programmes related to tourism organized by the government.

D. B. Rai