‘Highway projects worth Rs 44,000 crore sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh: Pema Khandu’,‘Sinking Joshimath a wake-up call for Northeast’,‘India proposes to develop 130 model villages along LAC’, ‘Arunachal showcases its tourism potential at Republic Day Parade’, ‘Arunachal witnesses infra push along border’, ‘Ziro Festival of Music brings Arunachal Pradesh into mainstream focus’, ‘PM Modi inaugurates first greenfield Arunachal Pradesh airport’, are a few amongst the many headlines around Arunachal that one gets to see in the recent past. One can only wonder about the extra attention given to this frontier region. Arunachal Pradesh, the land of rising sun seems to be in the radar of the state in the recent past. Development of Northeast India has been envisioned by the state vis-a-vis the Act East Policy (formerly known as the Look East Policy). Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech during the Independence Day Celebrations 2022, mentioned about the infra push that has been prioritised, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, citing the various strategic aspirations behind it. Given the improvement in roads, internet connectivity, accommodation facilities, an influx in the number of tourist footfalls can be expected. Tourism and politics go hand in hand. The tourism of a state is often motivated by the aspirations and interests of the ruling government. And to perceive the importance of tourism in our late capitalist society we only need to look at the growing width of the newspaper articles, television shows, advertisements and sometimes entire channels and internet sites dedicated to it. (Suchismita Das 2011). The dedicated websites of MDoNER, Arunachal tourism, respective social media pages speak ounces about the effort and time spent in strategizing ways to spread the word about the happenings in the region.
