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Kashmir, Darjeeling lose tourists to Shillong - India Travel Trends :
According to a Press Trust of India (PTI) report, Shillong, which once served as the summer getaway for the British colonialists along with Darjeeling Hills, has witnessed a phenomenal jump in the arrival of tourists. The city, atop the Khasi Hills, has become a great hit with the tourists for the last five years after the Kashmir Valley and Darjeeling Hills fell out of favour because of militancy and political trouble there. Shillong  tourism department officials said although they were yet to compile the exact number of tourists visiting the destination, provisional estimates said there had been a 50 per cent increase in the last five years. The total number of tourists coming to Meghalaya last year was 4,62,952, as compared to 4,00,287 in 2006 and 2,71,720 recorded in 2002.

The number of foreign tourists has also increased over the last five years. Last year there were 5,267 foreign tourists visiting the state, as compared to 3,191 recorded tourists in 2002. Buoyed by the increased tourist inflow, the Meghalaya Government has floated the idea of Bed and Breakfast (BnB) scheme under which willing families will host tourists to give them a first hand feel of the food and culture of the region. The scheme will also give tourists good alternative accommodation considering the limited hotel space available in Shillong and elsewhere in the state.

Conrad Sangma, Tourism Minister, Meghalaya told PTI that the state is not the first one to to implement the scheme. It is operating successfully in other tourist destinations in the country and there is a high possibility that it will work here as well.  "We are looking at an increase of both domestic and foreign tourists by ten per cent per annum," added Sangma. He, however, maintained that the government could only facilitate the implementation of the scheme and probably would rope in bankers to provide loans to the families opting to host tourists in their houses.

The benefit of the BnB scheme is that tourists visiting the hill city would be accommodated in an indigenous way. Sangma said, "We have asked the urban legislators to submit a list of five of ten names of people who are interested in the scheme." The tourism department is looking forward to an extra 150-200 rooms available within Shillong alone.