Calling on the tourism stakeholders to launch aggressive marketing campaigns, the Director Tourism Kashmir Mahmood A Shah Saturday said that the department is trying to counter negative perception and unnecessary media publicity through a multi-pronged strategy.He was speaking as a chief guest at 9th Annual General Meeting of the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK) here at Hotel New Park.During the meeting TAAK elected Ashfaq Siddiq Dug as its new President. Director Tourism Kashmir while welcoming the new TAAK body appreciated the role of the former presidents of the body.Director tourism Kashmir said the department would organize more road shows in different parts of the country especially in South India to attract tourists back to the J&K state which witnessed low tourist footfall due to negative publicity in recent times.
“We all have to do aggressive marketing campaign through road shows and other forms to counter negative media publicity and offset the fears of the travelers,” he said.While enumerating the positive effects of the promotion through social media, the Director Tourism Kashmir also urged the travel trade fraternity to use their social media accounts to promote Kashmir.He said the department is also tapping South Indian market where from tourist footfall is encouraging. He further said the arrivals from the countries like Bagladesh, Malaysia and Thailand has also picked up and a good number of crews are coming to shoot their films in Kashmir.