The scenic town of Pelling in West Sikkim was recently the venue for the World Tourism Day celebrations with a focus on this year’s theme of ‘Tourism and the Digital Transformation’ being addressed with a series of workshops, adventurous tourism and other activities

Ruchi Lahoti, area manager India of booking.com, spoke on how Sikkim is one of the top 15 ranking destinations travellers on booking.com are searching for. However it remains largely focused on Gangtok and more must be done to market other parts of Sikkim. She stressed on how booking.com empowers the host to define terms of booking and visual marketing tools and must use the same while taking help if required from local market managers. Sandip Roy, noted travel author, spoke on how important it is to write about the experience and not just the description of a particular place. He spoke of how these stories of experiences are what are actually attracting people today to visit a specific destination.
Bjorn DeNiese, vice president, Mayfair Hotels & Resorts, spoke on how leasing out of hotels must be avoided by the Sikkimese. By doing this, not only buildings and concrete are leased out but the entire culture and tradition of Sikkim as well. Every guest must be given a Sikkimese experience and not that of other states when they visit here. He stressed on the need to help young entrepreneurs with the right technology and guide them so that tourism can move forward with a proper growth plan in Sikkim. There should be proper training from experts and information dissemination at grassroots level. Adarsh Jha, supply manager India, Yatra, spoke on how Sikkim must have an interactive website and use virtual reality, augmented reality, encyclopaedia of tourism products and things to do. He mentioned how there has been a 250 per cent growth in search levels for Sikkim with maximum searches interested in activities to do.

The World Tourism Day event concluded in Pelling with the tourism minister calling upon the masses to work for the overall growth of Sikkim as a major tourist hub. He also highlighted various government schemes for promotion of state tourism at national and international levels. Sikkim also received the national award for best tourism state from the ministry of yourism, Govt of India, on the occasion of World Tourism Day which was received by the department secretary, C P Dhakal. The World Tourism Day celebration in Pelling was a grand success with several of the deliberations and discussions that took place being taken forward so the same can materialise in successfully bringing about a digital transformation in the tourism industry of Sikkim.