The work views the status of tourism in the North-east state of Meghalaya focusing on the potential of the Khasi, Garo and Jaintia hills to attract tourism. With a number of diagrams that present statistics on tourism growth in Meghalaya and other data relating to tourism development, it identifies problems associated with development of tourism in the state, focusing on potential areas of development. It showcases people’s perceptions and initiatives in this regard to understand the attitudes of host communities towards tourists and those of tourists towards the locals especially taking aspects relating to security, friendship, cordiality and insurgency into consideration. Based on fieldwork, it looks into the feasibility of promoting tourism as a strategy for community development in the state.