Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 13: Admitting that the State couldn’t develop the tourism infrastructure fully during the two decade long turmoil, Minister for Tourism, Ghulam Ahamd Mir today said there is a need to upgrade the infrastructure, develop recreational parks and boost rural tourism to attract more tourists and make them stay here for longer period.
Addressing a press conference, Mir said: “We couldn’t develop the tourism infrastructure fully over the past 2 decades because of the turmoil but now we have to draft a comprehensive policy regarding the development of infrastructure so that we can attract more and more tourists and will provide them the better facilities.”
Mir also said that the Department of Tourism is organizing a two week long tourism festival, ‘Tourism Festival 2013’, from today and the major focus of the activities would be to promote the culture and tradition of the state.
“We want our tourists to have a good knowledge of our rich culture and to promote it. In this two weeklong festival, locals and tourists would be entertained with the cultural activities of Kashmir,” he said.
The minister further said that the local hoteliers and Air India has kept special packages for tourists during this time and 20 per cent discount will be given to those who visit Kashmir during the festival.
Meanwhile, Director Tourism, Talat Parvez said that the adventure tourism has a lot of scope in the Kashmir valley. “We are developing adventure tourism like paragliding, mountain biking, water rafting and others to attract the tourists,” he said.
“We want the tourism industry to be revived and appeal the locals to come forward and take benefits from the industry. With the two week festival, on one hand where it will help us to promote the local culture, simultaneously we will entertain people also,” he added.
On the occasion, the department launched a website dedicated to rural tourism. “We are even focusing on to develop rural tourism to develop and revive cultural, traditional ethos in the state and to give a chance to the tourists to enjoy,” he said.
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