Srinagar: Director Tourism Kashmir Dr G N Itoo said tourist arrival has increased in last two-three months.
“This is due to vigorous campaign, mobilization that we were able to attract more tourists. The other stakeholders, like tour & travel association, houseboat owners and hoteliers have played a key role to resume the tourism activates in Kashmir,” Itto said.
He said they have also conducted road shows in other states of the country to attract more and more tourists to the Valley.
“Since I have assumed the charge as director tourism, I have conducted three major webinars with travel operators of Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmadabad, because from these places we receive highest number of tourists. Besides this we have decided to conduct a tourist festival in each season. In coming days we will have a series festivals. We will begin from Pahalgam in March during the almond bloom, we will have “Badamwari’ festival, where we will call people who are connected with our cultural, handicraft section, after this we will have “Tulip Festival” and “Houseboat festival. This will be one of the major activity to boost tourism campaign”, he said.
He said from November, Kashmir has received around 50 thousand tourists from other states of India and 70 thousand local tourists.
“In past two to three months, we have received over 1 lakh tourists. This is a good beginning and will build our confidence to have more tourists. We have guidelines, SOPs for tourists soon so that they can feel safe and secure while visiting Kashmir,” added Itto.