Tourist Police flags gaps in hospitality

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Oct 3: Tourist Police today flagged gaps in hospitality among some service providers in Kashmir and launched an interaction with tourists and tourism stakeholders to identify shortcomings and improve the visitor experience.

SSP Tourism Enforcement S.D. Chaudhary said the department was seeking direct feedback from tourists and service providers and would share suggestions on improving hospitality standards, particularly among hotels, travel agents, shikara operators and other tourism-related service providers.

"The basics of hospitality, for which Kashmir is famous, we are lacking it somewhere; some people are lacking it," Chaudhary told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar and interaction event organised by Tourist Police J&K at Zabarwan Park, here.

He said the interaction was intended to identify gaps and share "dos and don'ts" with service providers to ensure that tourists received better services.

"All the service providers are here and some tourists as well. We will take feedback from them, so that the system is improved and ensure that the service providers maintain the hospitality," he said.

On complaints from tourists, Chaudhary said these constituted less than one percent of the overall tourism footfall and were being addressed promptly.

"Complaints do keep coming, but if we see the ratio of tourism and ratio of complaints, the ratio of complaints is not even 1 per cent," he said.

He said necessary action was taken on complaints and feedback was obtained from tourists before cases were closed.

Chaudhary also said tourist footfall had been better this season and was expected to improve further despite challenges faced by the sector.

Tourism stakeholder Rouf Tramboo said the participants deliberated on feedback received from tourists and identified areas requiring improvement.

He said spring and summer had recorded good tourism activity, while September remained a lean period.

"October seems to be good, we are getting new bookings," he said, adding that the industry was now focusing on promoting winter tourism.