Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Oct 30: Minister of State for Tourism, Education, Technical Education, Culture, Horticulture, Floriculture and Parks, Priya Sethi met a deputation of Travel Agents Society of Kashmir (TASK), who called on her here today.
The Minister, while interacting with the delegation, said that tourism-related infrastructure is being upgraded and new locations are being added to the tourist map of Kashmir to attract more and tourists to the State. He said road shows, travel marts and other related activities are being carried out to promote Kashmir as a prime tourist destination.
She said that in this regard TASK should work towards creating better ties with the tourism players outside the State to uplift the tourism industry in Kashmir.
The Minister impressed that to boost the domestic tourism the focus should be centred around the composite culture of Srinagar. She further said that Srinagar darshan should be made a part of the travel packages.
Priya asked the delegation members to sit with the officials of Cultural Academy to identify the areas which can be further developed in tone with their cultural and aesthetic taste for wooing tourists to the capital city.
On the occasion, the deputations projected various demands including upgradation of the public infrastructure such as tourism resorts, heritage sites, launch of laser show on Dal Lake, restarting sound and light show at Shalimar Garden, waiving off GST on the tourism industry, among other issues.
The delegation urged the Minister that efforts should be made to revoke travel advisories issued by certain countries to attract the foreign tourists to Kashmir.
They said that capacity of the trains plying to and from Jammu should be increased in order to minimize the pressure during the peak seasons. They further said that more bogies should be added to the existing trains and new ones should also be added.
The deputation later apprised the Minister that soft loans should be provided to all the registered tourism stakeholders for the work of promotions.
The Minister gave them a patient hearing and assured them that all of their projected demands would be taken up with the Chief Minister and other relevant quarters for their prioritized redressal.
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