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Loktak Lake in Manipur.
The “Incredible !ndia” campaign that was launched a decade ago, helped market the country as a travel destination. Tourists have since flocked to India in growing numbers.
But one region felt it’s been missing out.
“The northeast was not able to jump on the bandwagon of the campaign known as Incredible India,” U.K. Sangma, a senior official at the North Eastern Council – a body aimed  at promoting economic and social development in the region – said during a discussion on the topic in New Delhi on Tuesday.
To make up for it, the council in 2010 commissioned Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to come up with ways of attracting tourists to the eight landlocked northeastern states, which are linked to the rest of India by a sliver of land and lag in development.
As part of the 10-year plan, which was unveiled at Tuesday’s event, the region is set to embrace a marketing tagline of its own: “Paradise Unexplored.”
“The idea is that if you haven’t been to the northeast, you haven’t been to paradise,” said Priya M. Verghese of Tata Consultancy Services, who worked on the project. She claims the region has “all that a tourist would look for.”
In northeastern India, the tourism industry is starting from a low base. While governmentdata shows that the number of foreign tourist arrivals in India went from 2.38 million in 2002, when the Incredible India campaign was launched, to a record 6.29 million last year, the number of tourists in the northeast is still negligible.
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Mount Kanchenjunga as seen from the Kaluk Bazaar in Sikkim.
For instance, only 389 foreign travelers visited the northeastern state of Manipur in 2010, the latest year for which state-specific data is available –  the lowest figure in the country. Overall, the region attracts 0.3% of international tourists who visit India and 0.9% of domestic tourist numbers.
Sikkim, a well-known trekking destination with something of a mystical draw, is an exception: around 90,000 tourists visited the state in 2010, of which over 20,000 were foreign.
But the remaining seven states, which are more remote than Sikkim,  are a bigger marketing challenge. While a comparable branding initiative in Kerala – “God’s Own Country” – helped place the southern Indian state on the international tourism map, repeating this for northeast India might prove a difficult puzzle.
While there’s lots going for the region –unspoilt nature and vibrant indigenous cultures are its strongest selling points– there are downsides, too.
These are best summarized by the Lonely Planet guide book: “Along with the infuriating [travel] permits …and the lack of any truly iconic ‘must-see’ attraction, it’s the somewhat exaggerated safety worries that deter most travelers from visiting the northeast.”
Safety concerns stem largely from the occasional flare ups of insurgent violence, frequent episodes of communal clashes and natural disasters. This week, in the state of Assam alone, over one million people were displaced as a result of flash floods. In recent months, the same state saw deadly fighting between members of the Bodo tribe and Muslims, many of whom are still sheltered in relief camps.
While these problems exist, northeastern states have done little to promote alternative narratives, some argue. “They’ve done a very poor job at marketing,” says Subhash Verma, who heads an association of Indian tour operators. That’s how “Paradise Unexplored” could come in useful.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to tourism in the region, however, is the lack of adequate infrastructure. Improving road and railway connectivity, while working on developing an effective system of emergency response, is a priority of the tourism master plan.
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Tourists riding on elephants photographed a rhinoceros with her calf at the Kaziranga National Park in Assam on Feb. 21.
To attract visitors, the project recommends turning a few sites along tourist circuits into key destinations – what it describes as “mega projects” – through marketing efforts and improved infrastructure.
For instance, the plan identified Loktak Lake in Manipur as a site where development should be prioritized. Other sites include the inhabited island of Majuli on the river Brahmaputra in Assam and and the hills of Jampui in Tripura.
But for “Paradise Unexplored” to become a reality, there’s a need for plenty of funding. The master plan estimates total development costs of 64.95 billion rupees ($1.22 billion), of which around two–thirds will come from the government. The backers of the plan are hoping the private sector will stump up the rest, focusing on areas like accommodation and infrastructure. That’s a big ask.