Tourists drop in Assam as 6 countries impose travel restrictions

Guwahati: The number of tourists visiting Assam has drastically declined from 98,31,141 in the fiscal year 2022-23 to 70,67,335 in 2023-24, and stood at 67,88,565 in 2024-25 (as of January).

In response to a query from Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed, Assam Tourism Minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass informed the assembly on Tuesday that six countries, including the USA, UK, Australia, and Switzerland, had imposed travel restrictions on their citizens regarding visits to Assam and the Northeast due to the region's law and order situation.

The countries that have issued the restrictions are the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland.

Dass said the Tourism Department, on behalf of the state government, engaged with the Ministry of External Affairs to persuade these countries to lift these restrictions.

"A high-level team from Australia had recently visited Assam to look into this aspect," the minister added.

Meanwhile, regarding the promotion of tea tourism, Dass said the state government launched the 'Promotion and Development of Tea Tourism Infrastructure in Assam' scheme in 2022-23.

Under this initiative, selected tea gardens will receive a Rs 2 crore grant each for developing tourism infrastructure and heritage bungalows.

The minister also announced that the selection process identified 22 tea gardens in the first phase and an additional 34 in the second phase.