Tourism has taken a huge hit in Manipur because of the ongoing unrest that began on May 3 this year.

This was disclosed by chief minister N. Biren Singh during an interaction with media persons in Imphal on Monday.

“Tourism? We cannot deny, little affected... except two districts, normalcy is there but (tourism) reduced to 10-to-20 per cent,” Singh, who is in his second term as chief minister, said.

Singh did not elaborate but security and safety issues triggered by the unrest have impacted all sectors and sections of people, leading to reduced tourist footfall which was on the rise before the unrest began on May 3 this year.

The downturn in the tourism sector is a setback for the government, which had been promoting the state as a tourism destination to generate employment by hosting several big-ticket events including Durand Cup, Sangai Festival and Femina Miss India but the unrest has adversely impacted the momentum provided by these events.

A tourism department official admitted the sector has taken a huge hit.

Before the unrest, tourist footfall had increased going by figures shared earlier this month.

Altogether domestic tourist arrival in 2022-23 was 1,55, 945, an increase of 371.5 per cent. Similarly, the foreign tourist count stood at 5,483, a jump of 2369.82 per cent, a tourism department official had told the media.

This sharp fall was reflected in the figure cited by the officials between January and July of domestic and foreign tourist arrival. The figures for January are 11,954 (domestic) and 587 (foreign); February 10,123 and 770, March 11,783 and 696, April 9,738 and 497; May 2,960 and 183; June 831 and 88 and July 1,333 and 94 respectively.

The chief minister on Monday yet again reiterated his appeal to stop violence and start dialogue while adding that “people have to live together again, resettle the displaced families in their respective places, children have to go to school and people have to work”.

The ongoing conflict between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities has left at least 194 dead and over 67000 displaced besides making the Kuki-Zo majority hill districts by road “out of bounds” for the Meiteis and the Meitei-majority valley districts “out of bounds” for the Kuki-Zo people because of security reasons despite heavy deployment of central security forces.

The government made efforts to resume Manipur State Transport bus services between the valley and hill districts through two key highways last week but this met with stiff opposition from the Kuki-Zo people on the border of the hill districts, further delaying efforts to link the two sides to ensure normalcy, sources said.