New Delhi: Apart from changing the false perception that Kashmir is not a safe place for tourist, the department of tourism needs to work on better connectivity and airfares to encourage more travellers to visit Kashmir, feels Sarmad Hafeez IAS, Secretary Tourism, Jammu & Kashmir.
There are certain concerns such as frequency and timings of the flights that the department of tourism has brought in the notice of Ministry of Civil Aviation. “The Ministry has been very forthcoming and well responded to our concerns. Certain measures like extending arrival of flights at Srinagar airport till late night will be greatly benefited to the tourism of Jammu & Kashmir,” said Hafeez.
Srinagar airport is widely connected with many cities of the country like Lucknow, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru and New Delhi etc. through via or direct flight. “However, by adding more cities, if the number of direct flights can be improved it will save time and generate more traffic and business to the state of J&K with immediate effect,” he added.
Apart from this, the state required a better connectivity among the three regions – Jammu, Kashmir and Leh. As he informed, Leh is a very important region for tourism in J&K despite that there is only one weekly flight from Srinagar to Leh which is hindering the growth of tourism in this part of the Kashmir.
Kashmir receive a lot of foreign tourist from Canada, New Zealand, Israel and Russia during winters who comes to indulge in adventure activities like skiing and gondola ride in Gulmarg. “However, we feel there is a lot more to be done because Kashmir is known as the destination where a lot of European used to come for a month long stay in the valley. We have huge numbers coming from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, even the Middle East and Singapore and we are focusing on these areas also,” added Hafeez.
In an attempt to attract more foreign tourist J&K Tourism is organizing roadshows in different countries. “We had conducted a roadshow in Bangladesh recently. Also, we have proposed to go to Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore to create more awareness about Kashmir and attract more travellers from this part of the world. However, air connectivity from these countries to Srinagar will be hugely benefited for the tourism in J&K,” informed Hafeez.
Apart from this, engaging with travel bodies and media to change the perception that Kashmir is not a safe place for tourist is is high on agenda. “Lot of the people has mental blocks against coming to Kashmir because of the false negativity and propaganda. We believe that the latest Annual Convention of TAAI (the state hosted in the month of March) will help in defeating some of those false perceptions as there a large number of delegates came from across the world and they had a first- hand experience,” he concludes.
