Jammu has an immense potential to be developed as an independent tourist destination and exhorted upon adopting a viable strategy for providing best possible publicity and promotional plan to attract tourists from all over the world to visit the beautiful places in the winter capital of the state.Minister of State for Education, Tourism and Culture, Priya Sethi stated this during a meeting convened to review the functioning of Tourism Department regarding publicity and promotion of prominent tourist places of Jammu region.Addressing the officers, Priya asked the concerned to prepare a comprehensive publicity mechanism targeted at attracting maximum tourist inflow to Jammu.She asked the department to work on the agenda of development of tourist circuits and destinations, realizing the immense potential of Jammu with its diverse traditions, cultures, spiritual and natural richness.“From adventure to pilgrimage tourism, Jammu has every element of a desirable tourist destination catering to the needs of a diverse population”, the Minister maintained.Encouraging the partnerships between the public and private sectors, she called for collaborated efforts from every stakeholder to give new dimensions to tourism industry and make the region emerge as a major tourist destination in the country in the Jammu region. During the meeting, the Minister was shown teasers and short videos showcasing natural beauty of various tourist destinations of Jammu Division.The Minister asked the department to explore the growth potential of unseen tourist destination of Jammu and widely publicize them through informative short films, documentaries, magazines and advertisements.
Priya also reviewed the preparation for Jammu Mahotsav and asked the tourism department to widely publicize the event to ensure maximum participation to make this festival a grand success.She instructed to organise photography contests and preparation of tourism calendar capturing the true essence of Jammu and further asked to prepare a mobile application of Tourism department to reach out to the tourists.The Minister sought the response and feed back of road shows held in other states and passed instructions to prepare a draft for organising ethnic food festivals in other parts of the country.She further asked for formation of research teams and engagement of historians to derive authentic historical facts on various historical places to make the experience rich and knowledgeable for tourists, besides enriching and substantiating region’s history.The Minister also directed for upgradation of tourist reception centre at Katra. She called for organising festival of lakes and asked the department to take recommendations from the concerned quarters in this regard.Priya asked the tourism department to tap the vast potential of adventure tourism in Jammu and called for collaboration with universities and colleges outside the state to attract the younger tourists and invite them for trekking expeditions and other adventure activities available in the region. She also stressed on developing a proper mechanism to take tally of tourists visiting the region.To engage tourists with different activities, the Minister asked the department to organise summer festival while connecting Bani, Basholi, Doda and Patnitop circuit besides organising Baisakhi festival at Mansar, Mubarak Mandi and Akhnoor.
During the meeting, a detailed discussion was held on various issues like publicity of Jammu Tourism on social media and outside the state, making of short films, promotional videos, funds allocated for publicity, categorization of hotels, fixing the hotel tariffs and alike.Meanwhile, the Minister released Tourism Department’s ‘Amazing Jammu Magazine’ depicting Jammu’s tourist destinations. She asked the concerned officers to publish more magazines on the similar lines and further stressed on optimal utilization of other modes of mass media to highlight and promote Jammu’s major tourist spots.She asked to integrate platforms like social media, mobile application, and installation of LEDs at various tourists’ areas. ‘Reasi beyond Katra’ an in-house information broacher was also released on the occasion.Director Tourism, Jammu, Smita Sethi, Joint Director, Tourism, Shokat Mahmood, CEOs Kishori Lal Sharma, Arvind Kotwal, Sudershan Kumar, Dr Rajinder Khajuria, Deputy Directors, Subhash Chander and Prabhodh Sharma, Manager (Engg.), NPCC, Kripa Ram, besides officers of the concerned departments attended the meeting.