Excelsior Correspondent
PAHALGAM, July 1: In a bid to counter negative publicity by a section of national electronic media on Kashmir, Minster for Public Works Naeem Akhtar Saturday appealed former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to leverage his fan following on social media for tourism promotion.
Describing him as a social media leader, Naeem said that Omar Abdullah has a huge fan following on social media especially Twitter and he should lead by way of engaging and encouraging younger generation on social media for creating positive perception about Valley.
The Minister was speaking as a chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony of the 7th J&K Golfers Association Tournament,
“We have immense tourism potential which has remained untapped due to many reasons including the way in which a section of national electronic media is portraying Kashmir. But we can counter that through social media. Now-a-days, people are using social media heavily and we should capitalize this media for our benefit and all of us must join this campaign against defaming Kashmir”, said Naeem Akhtar.
He said Kashmiris have to win the war of perception by making tourists believe that people are tourist-friendly, hospitable and the place is also safe.
“It is our collective responsibility to win the war of perception. I congratulate you for participating in the golf tournament and keeping the tourism alive in your own way. We have to organize more such programs to attract not only golfers but other tourists too,” he said.
“Now reaching Anantnag from Srinagar will take less than one our as the National Highway with all its bye passes will be ready by September. We will be building and upgrading requisite infrastructure for public and which will also help the tourism sector,” he said.
“We also have started road upgradation of the road from Seer to Pahalgam and Seer to Ashmuqam via Hapatnar. The execution will facilitate the locals and help tourism sector grow.”
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