It is the prime tourist season in Kashmir. Moderately warm days with mellow breezes, lush green fields, pastures and mountains, and the ripening fruits, all make it a dreamland for tourists from other parts of the country. With that hundreds of thousands of people connected with tourism-related activists have geared up to make the best of summer tourism. There are many among them who are in the tourist profession for two or three generations at end. Hoteliers, House Boat owners, taxi drivers, Kashmir art outlets and so many other professionals are expecting a windfall this beautiful summer. All they pray is that there should be peace and nothing should be done to disrupt the smooth in and out flow of tourists.
The season of festivities in the plains of India is of special interests to Kashmir tourism operatives. In an interaction with the Tourism Trade Bodies’ Coordination Committee, the Chief Minister expressed his hope that the holidays on account of upcoming festivals Durga Pooja and Diwali will mean big boost to tourist promotional drive. He has some clear ideas of promoting tourism. Most of the tourists come from Kolkata, Mumbai and Ahmadabad. He envisages package tours.
Conscious of the fact that during these festivity holiday, there will be great rush for booking seats in railways the Chief Minister has said that he would get into touch with the Union Railways Minister and request him to run additional trains and add more bogies to Jammu and Udhampur bound trains so that tourists coming either as pilgrim tourists or as normal tourists do not face difficulty of reservation. We appreciate the move and hope that the Union Minister of Railways will certainly respond favourably to this suggestion. We would also like to advise the State Road Transport Corporation to import ultra modern buses for the use of tourists who might be desirous of travelling by road from Jammu or Udhampur to the valley. Even inside the valley, modern comfortable buses should be made available to the tourists and regular tourist bus service should be started between the city of Srinagar and tourist spots not only in and around the city but also to distant tourist destinations like Gulmarg, Pahalgam etc. We are expecting the air lines to begin direct air service between Kolkata and Srinagar during the festival holidays.
An important step or call it innovation in the area of promoting tourism in Kashmir will be that the Tourism Trade Bodies’ Coordination Committee itself takes initiative of propagating and publicising Kashmir tourism throughout the country on a large scale. Presence of the members of the Trade Bodies Committee in tourist festivals and information dissemination meets in different cities will go a long way in motivating indigenous tourists. This is precisely what the Chief Minister has suggested. In all probability, Tourism Department would extend its good office and support for such an enterprise. Tourist Marts and festivals organized in different cities would be powerful engines of generating interest in Kashmir tourism.
It has to be remembered that Kashmir is equally a great attraction for winter tourism also. That should not be underestimated. The good thing is that we have something to offer to winter tourists to Kashmir though much more needs to be done in this context. Facilities provided to the tourists have to be streamlined. And more importantly, new tourist destinations in all the three regions of the State have to be explored and developed. Recently, Tourism Department had a detailed review of possibilities of opening new tourist destinations in various hilly parts of Jammu region including Reasi and Ramnagar. We would like to emphasize on the Tourism Department that development of new tourist destinations in Ladakh is of vital importance to the entire industry. Ladakh was large potential of developing new destinations for tourists. It should not be underestimated.
In final analysis, all stakeholders in tourist industry should try to derive maximum benefit from the rush of festival tourism on account of impending Durga Pooja and Diwali holidays. National level tourism should never be underestimated particularly when the spending capacity of Indian middle and upper class has increased considerably. But it is important that Kashmir tourism should be streamlined and brought at par with world tourism. The sum and substance of Kashmir tourism is to provide facilities to the tourists and to handle them with care and politeness so that Kashmir becomes the attraction point for more and more tourists with the passage of time.
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