Tourism has a pivotal role in achieving the objectives at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly the commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women of Sustainable Development Goal 5.

The Indian Women Network (IWN) Assam Chapter, the women wing of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the first Women Tourism Conclave 2022 called “ Incredible Northeast India- Tourism: a Vehicle for Women Empowerment” in Guwahati on September 24, focussing on women empowerment and sustainability.

The main objective of this initiative was to create a gender-inclusive ecosystem, encourage the participation of women in the tourism sector, and o project Northeast as a premier tourist destination.

The Chairperson of IWN, Assam Chapter, Dipannita Jaiswal said that the conclave aims to provide a platform for the service users, providers, and policymakers to deliberate and brainstorm on the ways of creating greater participation of women in travel, tourism, and hospitality sector. It was also aimed to ideate on means of creating a gender-inclusive ecosystem aiming toward gearing up the region for the overall development of the tourism sector.

The conclave had a series of panel discussions and sessions with distinguished speakers from Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC), Tourism Departments of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, and Editor of The Shillong Times Patricia Mukhim among others.

The conclave also hosted a session named “Women on Wheels”, which was dedicated to women drivers. Assistant Commissioner of Transport and DTO (R&L), Gautam Das, highlighted the free professional driving lessons offered to women by the department to empower women and make them self-reliant. Five women drivers were also given course completion certificate by the department during the session.

On the sidelines of the conclave, four women entrepreneurs of the region were felicitated for their contribution towards promoting domestic tourism.

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