For the first time in India, an international seminar on"Expansion of Tourism for Socio-Economic Development" was organised jointly by the Assam Institute of Management along with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacifi c (UNESCAP) and the World TourismOrganisation (UNWTO) on 25-26 June, 2008 at Hotel Grand Starline, Guwahati. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and the Government of Assam also collaborated in the same. The seminar was a part of the series of capacity building activities addressing issues within the framework of the Plan of Action for Sustainable Tourism Development in Asia and the Pacific, launched in 2006 by UNESCAP. The objective of the seminar was to strengthen the capacity of India to
formulate and implement appropriate policies, strategies, and
programmes to enhance the role of tourism in socio-economic
development.

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Tarun Gogoi inaugurated the seminar and Shri HS Das, IAS, Principal Secretary,Tourism, Govt of Assam, delivered the keynote address. Apart from Mr. Ryuji Yamakawa, Chief, Tourism Unit, UNESCAP
and Mr. Kazuo Ichikawa, Director of UNTWO, the following participated in the seminar from abroad: Mr. Suwat Jutakorn, Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand; Mr. Thomas Bauer,from Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Mr. Hiroyuki Tsui ofCultural and International Affairs Division, Japan; Ms. Yuko Koizumi of the Road Management Technology Centre, Tokyo and Ms. Yuko Kitano from Osaka. Mr. P. K. Dong, Consultant to State Tourism Department, Govt. of Sikkim and. Dr. Prabhakar Dubey, Director, India Tourism also participated in the event.

Mr. M. P. Bezbaruah, Ex-Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt.of India, chaired most of the sessions and provided his valuable experienced inputs to the seminar. Nearly 150 participants took part in the seminar. Apart from the Governments of theNE states, other tourism stakeholders including educational
institutions, airlines, hoteliers, travel agents, tour operators,ticketing agencies, NGOs joined the seminar. The outputfrom the seminar is expected to be very pertinent to all those engaged in developing the tourism potential of the region. It
may also help the projection of the NE region as a probable tourism destination in the international plane. Earlier, the guests from abroad were taken on a tour of the countryside and exposed to various facets of local culture and cuisine. The seminar was very deftly co-ordinated by Chandan Bora, assisted by NC Kalita, Md. Irfan Ulah, Kishore Hazarika, PC Kalita, Pradip Baishya, S. Raj, and forty odd AIM students who volunteered their services and other members of the AIM
family.

Mr. Ryuji Yamakawa, the Head of UNESCAP has sent thefollowing mail -

Dear Mr. Hazarika:
My colleagues and myself returned to home countries with nothing but the fondest memories of Assam. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to you, your colleagues and students in the Assam Institute of Management
for the successful organization of the seminar on expansion of tourism for socio-economic development in India. We consider the seminar a great success in view of the high level participation, and active interaction between the participants and resource persons.We would like to express our sincere appreciation to you for the kind hospitality and making our stay in Guwahati so enjoyable. Please convey our appreciation to the faculty members and students of the Assam Institute of Management and all others involved in the
seminar.

With best regards,
Ryuji Yamakawa
United Nations, ESCAP.