Continuing with efforts of reaching out to the various travel markets and stakeholders across various markets in the country, officers of Tourism Department comprising Director, Tourism, Kashmir, Dr. G N Itoo and Director, Tourism, Jammu, Vivekanand Rai today held back to back meetings here 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 Maharashtra 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 occasion, Dr. G N Itoo informed the stakeholders that only today the prestigious PGTI Golf tournament was teed off which is seeing a participation of 125 ace golfers including some Olympians and international star golfers. The aim, he said, is to showcase Jammu & Kashmir as the golfing capital of the country.
He said the Golfing circuit of Jammu & Kashmir comprising the iconic Royal Springs Golf Course, Pahalgam Golf Course, historic courses like the Gulmarg Golf Course and Kashmir Golf Course besides Jammu-Tawi Golf Course provides a rich and varied world class experience to visiting golfers which is unparalleled in rest of the country.Similarly this year, Mr. Vivekanad Rai informed the stakeholders that adventure activities like trekking and rafting have picked pace among the adventure loving tourists and the J&K 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 completed their shootings at various locations across J&K, particularly Kashmir. A calendar of festivals for the coming three months has been drawn up including the iconic autumn and winter festivals.The team of officers on the occasion addressed the queries and questions of many of the participants who wanted to explore Jammu & Kashmir tourism.Many tour and travel operators from J& K alongwith their counterparts from Mahrashtra including Pune, Nasik, Nagpur, Kolahpur and representing prominent associations like MTOA, TAAI, IATO, ADTOI, TAFI were present during these interactions.