The Bill has provisions for restructuring the Department with the formation of a Directorate for effective planning, monitoring and enhancing the tourism industry in Sikkim. Further, the Bill also has a provision to constitute a Consultative Committee to seek feedback and inputs from stakeholders related to tourism.
Minister-in-Charge of the Tourism and Civil Aviation Department, Tshering Thendup Bhutia, has introduced the Sikkim Registration of Tourist Trade Bill, 2024 (Bill No. 23 of 2024).
As per an official circular, the Tourist Trade Bill 2024 is proposed to establish a legal framework for the regulation of tourism-related activities in Sikkim ensuring that all stakeholders adhere to standards that promote safety, quality and ethical practices augmenting the quality-of-service delivery by the tourism entity operators in making Sikkim the choicest tourist destinations in the country.
The Bill articulates key policies relating to responsible tourism and mandated behaviours of stakeholders, tourists, and travellers as well and proposes fines for noncompliance with provisions articulated in the bill and the rules that would be framed under the Act following its promulgation. The Bill also describes offences for acts of commission and omission involving violation and non-compliance with policies and rules while ensuring that the stakeholders play by the dictums of sustainable tourism, act responsibly towards the environment and demonstrate commitment towards community development while pursuing tourism-related operations and activities.
It is also envisaged to empower the Tourism and Civil Aviation Department with provisions that shall ensure; (i) professional management of operations and activities related to the leasing of tourism assets and infrastructures (ii) boost to the local economy by fostering tourism as a significant economic driver, creating job opportunities and encouraging local entrepreneurship (iii) safeguarding the interests and rights of the tourists by ensuring the provision of high-quality services and preventing exploitation and fraud (iv) ease of processes for issuance of permits (v) monitoring the operations and activities of Hotels, Restaurants and Tour operators in compliance to the policies and guidelines (vi) enable real-time factual online information to proactively assist the tourists and travellers to make informed decisions.
The Bill has provisions for restructuring the Department with the formation of a Directorate for effective planning, monitoring and enhancing the tourism industry in Sikkim. Further, the Bill also has a provision to constitute a Consultative Committee to seek feedback and inputs from stakeholders for improvements to be made in the operations and activities related to tourism.
The Bill was passed during the First Session (Part-II) of the Eleventh Assembly (Budget Session 2024-25) of the Sikkim Legislative Assembly (SLA) commenced at the Sikkim Legislative Assembly Secretariat on August 5. Sikkim Governor, Om Prakash Mathur. He highlighted Sikkim’s achievements in health, education, tourism, agriculture, women empowerment and environmental sustainability. The transformative progress has been driven by various schemes that reflect the dedication and hard work of Sikkimese citizens, he added.
