JK TOURISM DEPARTMENT HOLDS INTERACTIVE SESSIONS WITH LOCAL TOUR TRAVEL

 JK TOURISM DEPARTMENT HOLDS INTERACTIVE SESSIONS WITH LOCAL TOUR TRAVEL 

OPERATORS, MEDIA OFFICERS BRIEF THEM ABOUT POST COVID-19 PREPARATIONS BY JK 

ADMINISTRATION, DIVERSIFIED TOURISM PORTFOLIO

 Adventure tourism, golf, other niche tourism products in demand; Golfers this year 

arrived 15 times more than last year.

 This year a number of South Indian production houses had their shoots in JK.

 Fully geared up after successful vaccination campaign of and capacity 

building among local tourism stakeholders back home, the J&K Department of Tourism has 

started a vigourous promotional campaign among the potential tourism markets across the country.

Under this promotional initiative, officers of the Department would be travelling to various 

major cities of the country where they would be holding meetings, interactions, road shows 

with representatives of the travel trade industry and the media. To begin with the cities 

targeted include Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkatta.

In this connection, a team of officers comprising Deputy Director, 

Tourism(Registration/Publicity), Kashmir, Dr. Ahsanul Haq Chishti and Deputy Director, 

Tourism(Publicity), Jammu, Naresh Kumar are in Chennai where they held back to back 

meetings with local tour operators, local media fraternity and even some prospective buyers of 

J&K tourism products.

During the meetings, the officers apprised the representatives of tour travel industry about the 

preparedness of the Jammu & Kashmir administration and tourism stakeholders in terms of 

COVID-19 protocol and precautions. They said soon after the outbreak of Covid-19, the UT 

administration prioritised the vaccination of tourism stakeholders including taxi operators, 

hoteliers, shikarawallas, tourist guides, ponywallas etc. and so far 95 per cent of all tourism 

stakeholders stand vaccinated.

On the diversified tourism products available in J&K, the officers informed that the Golfing 

circuit of Jammu & Kashmir particularly the iconic Royal Springs Golf Course and Pahalgam Golf 

Course provides a rich and varied world class experience to visiting golfers which is unparalleled 

in rest of the country. Besides, the Gulmarg Golf Course is being re done while as the Kashmir 

Golf Course at Srinagar which was shut for seven years after the devastating floods of 2014 has 

been re-laid, its fairways and greens redone and it was thrown open last month while as the 

Jammu-Tawi Golf Course has been developed of international quality. During the current year 

more than seven golf tournaments of national and international standard are lined up for next 

two months which includes the prestigious PGTI-Pro tournament which is expected to witness 

participation of around 126 top golfers of the country and abroad. Currently all major cities in 

the country have direct air connectivity with Srinagar and Jammu airports.

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Similarly this year, the officers informed that, adventure activities like trekking and rafting have 

picked pace among the adventure loving tourists and the Government has thrown open many 

more treks for exploration from this year. Niche tourism in Jammu & Kashmir is picking up with 

religious, heritage, adventure, golf etc. being on the enquiry list of prospective tourists. Many 

more new destinations are being explored and put on the tourism map of the UT.

The meetings were told that last winter and this summer an encouraging number of production 

houses from Southern states completed their shootings at various locations across J&K,

particularly Kashmir. A vigorous advertisement campaign is being launched by the Department 

all across major cities of the country besides a calendar of festivals for the coming three months 

has been drawn up including the iconic autumn and Winter festivals.