Jammu has no place in Govt’s scheme of things in tourism

Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Mar 23: Notwithstanding the claims of the State Government of paying equal attention for the promotion of tourism in Jammu region also, it seems that the same has no priority in the scheme of the things of the Government as the announcements made in this regard were mere hollow promises and commitments.
According to sources, the State Government’s discriminatory attitude towards the Jammu region has again come to fore with the letter of invitation issued on the name of Minister of Tourism for the State Tassaduq Mufti extending invitation to people for attending the three day convention of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) to be held at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), Srinagar from March 27 to 29 has only made focus on the promotion of tourism in Kashmir valley while ignoring the Jammu region as has been the past practice also.
The invitation read that the Conference will be inaugurated by the Minister on March 27 and a dinner will also be hosted at Lalit Grand Palace in Srinagar the same day. The event which is organized by TAAI in SKICC on the bank of picturesque Dal lake is being supported by Department of Tourism J&K.
In the three day programme a mini golf tournament will be organized in the morning at the Royal Spring Golf Course on March 27, which will be followed by inaugural ceremony of the event at SKICC by the Minister. TAAI has held last convention in Srinagar over three decades back and now this year it is holding again. According to reports about 400 delegates from the field of travel and hospitality from across the country will participate in the event at Srinagar including some foreign delegates.
However, there is no mention in the agenda about the other two regions of the State i.e. Jammu and Ladakh regions which are famous for adventure and pilgrimage tourism, sources said. “What has been the more cause of concern the leading tour and travel operators and hoteliers of Jammu have not been till date extended any invitation about the same and even they don’t know about the event also,” sources added.
Surprisingly the invitation letter which has been made on the name of Minister of Tourism has been issued under the name of Secretary Tourism and Director Tourism  Kashmir while there is no mention about the name of MoS, Tourism or Director Tourism Jammu, who are also the part and parcel of the Department.
Former president Hotel and Restaurant Association Katra and a leading hotelier of the State, Shiv Kumar Sharma said that he didn’t know about hosting of the event.
Same were the views of Inderjit Khajuria, chairman All Jammu Hotels and Lodges Association and of Jammu Paritan Vikas Mandal. “This is not for the first time that Jammu is given a raw deal but it has been a past practice” he added.
Khajuria said whenever they go out of State for holding any meeting or conference for promotion of tourism people associated with the tourist trade from Valley are taken while Jammu is being ignored.
His views were substantiated by Kuldeep Wahi, president Jammu Hotel Restaurant and Bar Association and chairman, Jammu Paritan Vikas Mandal. “They are concerned for promotion of tourism in Kashmir and Jammu is not in their scheme of things as they do not want Jammu to be brought on tourism map of country though it has a lot of potential for adventure as well as pilgrimage tourism,” he added.
Maintaining that the people of Jammu don’t want that they be given benefit of entire thing but there are also some good places in Jammu like Patnitop, Mansar Surinsar and Sanasar lakes, picturesque places of Bhaderwah and pilgrimage centers of  Mantalai, Sudhmahadev, Buda Amarnath, Purmandal etc but no one is bothered to promote these places.
He said Patnitop can be developed at par with Pahalgam and it can attract lot of tourists from country and abroad provided Government pays attention to it.
Gian Sharma, a Travel Associate from Jammu said that the people practically working on ground for promotion of tourism in the State are not being invited in any such conferences. “Whenever they go for advertising any programme regarding tourism outside the State people from Kashmir associated with the trade are invited and those form Jammu are ignored”, he added.
“Our organizations on their own level visit outside States for promotion of tourism trade for the State and whenever there is any programme from Government side in this regard they never invite us”, he said.
Rakesh Gupta president Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also not received any invitation letter to attend the conference so far. However he showed optimism that Government may keep the promise and complete the ongoing projects linked to promotion of tourist trade in Jammu in a time bound manner.
“We are hopeful that CM will keep her promise on completing the Artificial lake, Gondola and other projects in a time bound manner”, he added.
However president Katra Hotel Restaurant Association Rakesh Wazir has received the invitation. He too was optimistic that if tourists visit Kashmir naturally Jammu too will be benefitted.
He, however, admitted that so far as development of tourism in Jammu it did not get as much attention as Kashmir and Jammu could have emerged another tourist hub when Kashmir remained disturbed had the proper attention paid to it in past.
Moreover the  attention needs to be paid for promotion of pilgrimage tourism in Jammu , he said, adding the number of pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi have decreased since 2012 when a record number of 104 .95 crore pilgrims visited holy shrine. It has now decreased to 93.24, 78.3, 77.76, 77.23 and 81.78 crore in the years of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.

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