Hornbill Festival becomes costlier with steep rise in ticket, stall rentals

Morung Express news 
Kohima | December 6 

The Hornbill Festival at the Naga Heritage Village, Kisama has become more expensive overall, despite the Department of Tourism, Government of Nagaland, imposing price ceilings on food at the Morungs and food stalls.

A significant increase in entry tickets has become a point of contention among visitors and vendors at the ongoing Hornbill Festival, even as officials cited initiatives for ‘sustainable tourism’ and crowd management.

This year, the entry fee has been set at a uniform Rs 150 for all attendees, locals, domestic, and international tourists, a threefold increase from last year’s Rs 50 for locals.

“Last year, it was Rs 50. The entry ticket has doubled this year. The public does not know the rationale behind this,” a visitor rued that the ticket was quite exorbitant. 

“First we pay the entry ticket, even concerts have tickets, Children’s park, museum, most of them are not affordable or nothing less than Rs 50,” another person commented. 

When asked about the uniform pricing, Viyielo Duolo, Director of the state Tourism Department, stated that during the festival, “there is no distinction of visitors irrespective of it being locals or non-locals.”

Duolo said that one conscientious initiative it is undertaking is that it is contributing some part of the ticket collected for ‘sustainable tourism.’

He further substantiated that in this regard, Rs 50 from each ticket sold will be contributed to this initiative. 

Meanwhile, food stall owners also raised concerns over doubled rentals and lower footfall of customers. “Rent for food stalls have been doubled. It is Rs 20,000, double the cost of last year,” one stall owner added. 

An official said that the rationale behind is to minimize the number of food stalls which will automatically double customers of those who have been allotted to run food stalls during the Hornbill Festival.  

“We cannot address it to anyone. What will the department do even if we address it to them during the middle of the festival,” a food stall owner near the festival site said adding that this time there were many non-local had been allotted food stalls which has also proven disadvantageous for the locals. 

A visitor also pointed another thing to point out was even the event brochure this year is now priced Rs 200 comparing to previous years when these brochures were openly and freely available to any visitors. 

“It must be an agenda but what was the arrangement made by government those years when these kind of brochures were free flowing,” questioned another visitor.