Promoting tourism through mobile apps is an innovative idea no doubt but what about the tourism infrastructure a tourist encounters in Jammu and Kashmir. A poor infrastructure await anybody like poor transport, communication and boarding and lodging facilities. Not much has changed except the National Highway rest interiors are as bad as it were years ago. One fails to find reasonable eating joints like what one finds in Punjab, Haryana or Himachal. The State Government should visit the ‘bed & breakfast’ scheme introduced by Chandigarh Administration to promote tourism. Under the scheme a visiting tourist can stay in any of the enlisted households and pay for the services besides Govt shares a percentage of expenses incurred by the households which makes economic sense for them and tourist get the homely environment. The State Government should improve infrastructure, connectivity and the relevant facilities along with developing of the mobile app as announced by Minister of State for Tourism Priya Sethi so that the fledgling tourism sector can breathe a fresh lease of life. Besides these there is an urgent need to promote the indigenous festivals like Jammu festival, Shiv Khori Mela, Lohri, Baisakhi, sports tourism, border tourism, rural tourism and projection of new tourist circuits which need focused attention and events in other places should be organised with pomp and show. The tourists should have all the information regarding the tourist places in Jammu and Kashmir handy and in this age of technology, what better option could be than having a mobile application to convey all key information through cell phones, Sethi had said. She said the aim of developing the mobile application is to increase the tourist footfall in the State. The government is committed to bringing Jammu which is known as the City of Temples on the tourism map of the country and all necessary steps needed for the same would be taken in a time-bound manner, she had said.
