April 18, 2021
The programme’s objective was to promote and display the UT as an ideal destination for tourism, weddings, adventure, leisure, films, cuisine.
The attendees included local tour operators, hoteliers, houseboat owners and officials from transport companies among others.
Along with meetings to discuss the tourism opportunities, exhibitions of various Kashmiri garments, embroideries and food were held.
Lt. Governor of J&K mentioned that more tourists could be expected to visit the union territory during the summer, post the lockdown.
Aiming to explore and foster the potential of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir in the areas of travel, tourism & hospitality, a networking platform called “Tapping the Tourism Potential of Kashmir: Another Day in Paradise” was put together by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India & Department of Tourism, Government Of Jammu & Kashmir, in collaboration with FICCI (Knowledge Partner) and IGTA, and held in Srinagar. The programme’s objective was to promote and display the UT as an ideal destination for tourism, weddings, adventure, leisure, films, cuisine. The event was virtually inaugurated by Shri Manoj Sinha, Lt. Governor of J&K and Shri Prahlad Singh, Union Minister of State for Tourism & Culture (I/c). Other officials at the event’s inaugural included CoI Shri Arvind Singh; Advisor to Lt. Governor of J&K, Mr Basheer Khan; Secretary Tourism, Govt of Jammu & Kashmir Mr Sarmad Hafeez; Additional Director General, MoT, Smt. Rupinder Brar.
Lt. Governor Mr, Basheer Khan mentioned that post the lockdown, J&K has witnessed a significant increase in the number of tourists and more tourists could be expected to visit the union territory during the summer, with the government preparing a long list of new destinations that would pique the interest of tourists. Experts discussed various strategies to promote tourism in the UT in a post pandemic world during a plenary session called “Taking Kashmir to the next level as a preferred tourist Destination”. A special event was arranged for the key industry stakeholders from Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry of Jammu and Kashmir and the delegates from rest of India at Srinagar. The attendees for the plethora of sessions and meetings included local tour operators, hoteliers, houseboat owners, transport companies and other key stakeholders of Travel, Tourism & Hospitality from Kashmir as Sellers, while the buyers consisted of top notch Tour operators, DMC’s, Film personalities, Eco tourism specialists from various parts of India.
Some of the events in the programme included an exhibition of various Kashmiri garments, embroideries and food and a Shikara and boat ride at Dal Lake for the delegates. A golf tournament between the delegation of Golfers from various parts of India and local Golfers from Srinagar was organized with the aim of promoting J&K as an international golf tourism destination. Celebrity Chefs Pankaj Bhadouria & Chef Ranveer Brar participated in live cooking classes which were held as part of the effort to promote the rich heritage of Kashmiri cuisine.