The Union Tourism Ministry has decided to identify 20 new tourist destinations in the State and set a huge amount for development of three mega circuits. The Ministry intended to hold a laser show in the Dal lake in order to woo tourists from both within the country and outside.
"Jammu and Kashmir topped our priority for the promotion of tourism across the country. At the same time, we would like this State to come up as a favourite destination for tourists coming from different parts of the world. A complete mapping of the State has been carried out and we have identified 20 new tourist destinations across the State," said Union Minister for Tourism, Subodh Kant Sahay while addressing a press conference here.
He said that his Ministry would hire services of a world class consultant for proper development of these new tourist destinations adding that the consultant would be entrusted with the responsibility of attracting the attention of world class investors in tourism sector.
"Only 0.6 percent of tourists come to visit India and this I believe is nothing. We have to pull up our socks and do the needful in this respect. In the next five years we intended to take this figure to one percent and for the same we have drawn a comprehensive plan. The tourists coming from across the globe to India need to be given some packages. There are 28 world class heritage sites in the country and they are required to be promoted to the best possible level," said Sahay.
The Union Tourism Minister said that Rs 25 crores each have been sanctioned for three mega circuits in the State adding that amount would be spent on Naagar Nagar (Kashmir), Mubarak Mandi (Jammu) and Ladakh. He said that the Tourism Ministry has sanctioned Rs 128 crores during 10th Five Year Plan for the various Centrally sponsored tourism projects and the figure stood at Rs 219 crores during the 11th Five Year Plan.
Mr Sahay said that the State Tourism Ministry would create tourism trade investor policy and according to the same infrastructure in form of hotels and exhibition parks would be created. He said that the biggest challenge for the Tourism Ministry is to sustain the interest of tourists in the State and make them to stay here for a week or more than that.
"The State Tourism Department has already drawn up its calendar of activities for this year but still then we want them to add on some more events. We intend to hold a laser show at Dal lake and revive the light and sound festival at Shalimar. It would be our endeavour to revive Shikara festival as well. Lot of spiritual tourists visit Jammu and it would be in tune if some more packages are offered to people visiting Jammu," he said.
Mr Sahay said that the tourism was required to be given the status of an infrastructure industry and hoped that the State Tourism Department would do something in this regard. He asked the local hoteliers to encourage youth living in the vicinity of Manasbal lake to set up cottage type accommodation so that tourists could visit them and a boost is given to the rural tourism.
"An amount of Rs 5 crores would be given for developing arts and crafts Haat in the State on the pattern of Delhi Haat. We will also facilitate participation of private entrepreneurs and stake holders for development of various destinations under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode," Mr Sahay said.
Sharing his views the Union Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmad said that space would be given to Kashmir in Geneva festival adding that State would be asked to display Shikara during the festival. He said a print media cum production campaign for the promotion of tourism in Kashmir would be carried out from Dubai to Toronto. He said that Kashmir can easily be compared with Switzerland or Scotland when it comes to tourism and tourist destinations.
Asserting that hygiene and sanitary conditions at key tourism destinations is one of the major areas of concern, Sahay said joint efforts are needed to provide adequate facilities to the visitors, both domestic and foreign, to make their holiday memorable.
"There has to be synergy of efforts between Centre, State Governments and Union Territory Administration and the private sector to develop the tourism destinations in an integrated way by providing the necessary facilities and making the experience pleasurable to the visitors, both domestic and foreign," Sahay said.
He also announced setting up of Joint Consultative Committee of Members of Parliament from Jammu and Kashmir, representatives of State Government and representatives of Union Tourism Ministry for speedy implementation of Centrally financed tourism projects in the State.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today asked Centre to allow direct international flights to the Valley for boosting the tourism sector in the State.
Addressing a tourism conference organised by FICCI here, Omar emphasized the need of facilitating tourists from South-East Asia and Middle-East to visit the Valley by operating direct flights.
Terming connectivity as an important ingredient for facilitating inflow of tourists, he strongly advocated operationalizing international flights by the Air India from and to Srinagar Airport.
"This would give fillip to the arrival of international tourist traffic to the Valley. Air India should not make the profitability its yardstick for operating international flights at Srinagar International Airport," Omar said.
The Chief Minister also called for rescheduling the flight timings between Delhi and Srinagar.
"We have already taken up the matter with the Civil Aviation Ministry for operationalizing the time chart for Delhi-Srinagar flights where under the first flight from Delhi should reach Srinagar Airport at 7.00 am and the last flight leaves from here at 6.00 pm," he said.
Omar said these steps would greatly facilitate the inflow of tourists to Jammu and Kashmir.
He said new tourist markets—Russia, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan need to be explored for diverting tourist traffic to Kashmir as the tourist rush to India from these countries is increasing phenomenally.
Underlining tourism as one of the major components in State’s economy, he expressed hope that tourism will pick up this season gradually to compensate for the losses incurred during the last three summer unrests.
He asked the Union Tourism Ministry to help in diverting various national and international conferences to SKICC where there is up to the mark infrastructure facilities for such conferences and the weather is most pleasant in this part of the country.
Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay asked the State Tourism Department to formulate a comprehensive project for showcasing ‘Sufi Circuit’ as tourist destination.
"My Ministry will provide you all help in this regard. You have greater potential for attracting domestic and foreign tourists to visit spiritual places in the State," he said.
He said new tourist markets—Russia, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan need to be explored for diverting tourist traffic to Kashmir as the tourist rush to India from these countries is increasing phenomenally.
Underlining tourism as one of the major components in the State’s economy, he expressed hope that tourism will gradually pick up this season.
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