STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Secretary Tourism, Farooq Ahmed Shah on Friday convened a meeting to review the progress of Tourism Department here this afternoon.
The meeting was informed that Tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir which was all set to receive record number of tourists this season is now witnessing low tourism activity especially in Kashmir Valley due to the prevailing situation.
It was informed in the meeting that 2015 witnessed the resurgence of tourism in Kashmir valley after vigorous promotional campaign launched by the department and the efforts supplemented by the private tourism stakeholders which resulted in increase in arrivals this year. This has compelled the private airlines to add more flights and this number went up to 37 with the introduction of GO -Air evening flights, the meeting was told.
However with the onset of prevailing situation, the daily arrival of tourists by air and road has gone down from 10,000-12,000 to few hundred. The cancellations have affected Hoteliers, Houseboat owners, Airlines and other tourism stakeholders across the valley. Further, many Bollywood shootings of big and middle budget films have been cancelled and these banners have moved their shootings to Himachal Pradesh. Likewise the tourists intending to come to Kashmir have also opted for Himachal Pradesh and other neighboring destinations.
The Secretary Tourism was further informed that work on some projects is on fast track like Food Craft Institute (FCI) Jammu, TRC Dera Baba Banda Reasi, Tourist Complex Bani-Basholi, Tourist Facilitation Centre at Kargil and Leh and some of the projects are being commissioned soon.
The Secretary Tourism also chaired the 36th meeting of Board of Governors (BoG) of Institute of Hotel Management.
The BoG was informed that IHM Srinagar recently issued a notification for 6 months training of 3,000 candidates in different tourism trades like landscaping, gardening and tourist facilitation.