In an effort to encourage and promote socioeconomic growth through tourism, the Mopungchuket Community Tourism Society (MCTS) conducted a workshop on ‘Tourism Entrepreneurship’ at Mopungchuket village on September 6, with Rajib Pal, a corporate lecturer from Kolkata, as the resource person, and Er. Lobosang Jamir, Additional Chief Engineer (Power), D&R, Government of Nagaland, as the patron.
Held at the Tourism Multiutility Hall at Longrangtenem Park, the workshop was attended by tourism stakeholders including homestay owners, guides, aspiring tourism entrepreneurs, MCTS members, and village council elders of Mopungchuket.
The attendees received training on topics such as objective and goal setting, decision-making, risk-taking, addressing challenges, presentability, tourist retention, and future planning. The workshop was premised on increasing tourist footfall in the village.
The stakeholders were also trained on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a strategy for improving brand reputation. Stating that all tourists have a “mission,” the resource person cited the need to better understand visitors to ensure their satisfaction. He said, “Our vision must connect with the tourists’ mission.”
The resource person also observed that Mopungchuket has immense opportunity and abundant avenues for tourism entrepreneurship and urged the villagers to retrospect and be courageous. While urging the villagers to identify one’s weaknesses, he also advised that they must evolve or stagnate. He also mentioned that the government of Nagaland recognizing Mopungchuket as a ‘rural tourism village’ in 2007 could be the village’s unique selling point.
The workshop, held in an interactive and participatory manner with participants divided into groups for activities and brainstorming sessions.
Earlier, while delivering the keynote address, the patron encouraged the attendees to “unlearn and relearn” and urged them to inculcate a strong work culture, shed complacency, hone managerial skills, promote accountability, and adopt management professionalism. He stated that advanced societies and Western countries prospered because of their work culture. “It is the people who create the environment, and the environment creates the system,” he said.
He also noted that complacency leads to corruption, poor governance, and the election of wrong leaders. He stressed that entrepreneurship must be taken up by professionals; otherwise, it would be a waste of time, and “time is money.”
He urged participants to view tourism entrepreneurship as a professional, profit-making venture while encouraging them to shed negativity and learn from past experiences. He further questioned whether the community had developed the ecosystem to support tourism entrepreneurship, adding that such enterprises would be sustainable only when a complementary ecosystem is in place.
MCTS was established in 2001 by the community. To commemorate its 25th year of existence, MCTS has been undertaking various tourism development initiatives and has several plans set for implementation in the coming months.
