Fayaz Bukhari
Srinagar, Jan 22: The Parliamentary Standing Committee delegation today had a day trip to Gulmarg to take stock of the tourism activities and to meet hoteliers and tour operators.
The PSC delegation along with the top officials of Tourism Department including the Principal Secretary Tourism Sarmad Hafeez met the Hoteliers in Gulmarg to have an on the spot assessment of the tourism facilities, infrastructure and problems being faced by the tour operators.
Secretary General Hoteliers Club Gulmarg, Tariq Gani said that they presented a five-point memorandum to the delegation. “We expressed our concerns and put forth demands before the delegation which included the extension of lease agreements to the hotelier whose leases have expired”, he said.
The hoteliers also raised the issue of Srinagar-Jammu National Highway closure and its impact on tourism. “Frequent closure of Highway leads to the problems for Tourism Industry, as most of the domestic Tourists prefer to come by road, we also demanded the night landing at Srinagar International Airport”, he said.
He added that post abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A and then Coronavirus lockdown hit the Tourism industry badly. “We demanded the relaxation in GST for next five years and financial assistance so that we can review our business which has suffered a lot”, he said. “We demanded the enhancement in the budget for Tourism promotions along with that we should also be allowed for necessary renovations and repairs for our properties.”
The delegation had lunch at Khyber hotel and returned to Srinagar in the evening.
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