Diezephe Village under Chümoukedima District, Nagaland was awarded Bronze in Best Rural Tourism Village Awards organised by the Ministry of Tourism on World Tourism Day on Wednesday. The awards were given for promotion and preservation of their cultural heritage and sustainable development through tourism.

Diezephe Village was among the 20 Rural Tourism Villages in the Bronze category. There were 5 villages in the Gold category and 10 in Silver.

Unfortunately, no representative from the State was present at the function to receive the award for Diezephe Village during the program held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi that was organised by the Tourism Ministry, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The program also marked the global launch of ‘Travel for LiFE’ for two different verticals – Travel for LiFE for Cleanliness – a national TFL campaign for cleaning tourist sites and monuments in convergence with the Swachhata campaign and Travel for LiFE for Rural Tourism encouraging tourists to explore the rural and lesser-known hinterland promoting sustainable rural tourism thereby empowering rural communities, the Ministry of Tourism stated.

The ‘Travel for LiFE’ program actions promotes sustainable economic development, encourages sustainable consumption and production and thereby contributes to the SDGs focused on Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life Below Water (SDG 14). The Ministry stated that given the wide range of actions, Travel for LiFE contributes directly and indirectly to almost all the SDGs.