The Union Ministry of Tourism has hit upon a brilliant idea of developing the Himalayan Tourist Circuit or Himalayan Darshan, which will take the tourism of three Himalayan States, namely Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttaranchal into its fold. Although tourism industry is steadily gaining ground in developed and some of the developing countries of the world, yet India is not among the leading countries that attract world tourists as it should. At the present our share in world tourism is just 0.64 per cent, which is almost peanut.
India is one of the world’s ancient countries with rich civilization. It is actually a mosaic of human culture. People of all major faiths in the world live in this country. It is diverse in so many things, geography, topography, ethnicity, linguistics, culture, tradition, faith and what not. This multi-faceted nation should have become the prime attraction for world tourists and we should have been enjoying the lion’s share of world tourism. That is not the case. The reason is that we have not given due attention to this economy generating industry and we have not developed it in accordance with the needs and demands of modern society. Tourism cannot be developed either by wishing to be a tourist attraction or by just praising the nature and pristine beauty of Kashmir and its mountains, lakes, rivers, meadows and glaciers. What we need to do is to give a boost to tourist industry: what facilities we are offering the tourists, how much satisfied they go from here, how much of goodwill we are able to give and receive and how much fairly and honestly and sincerely we have treated the tourists. A number of services and industries are connected with tourism. We have to make sure that all these affiliates perform in the best interest of the tourists. It is the quality of service, efficiency and competence that count.
More than 70 per cent of the great Himalayas are on our side. It means we can generate vast opportunity of developing the Himalayan Tourist Circuit. It has to be the expanded tourist destinations spread over three states and the tourists going on a comprehensive tour would get acquainted with multi-dimensional culture of the people inhabiting the Himalayan foothills; their folklore, their traditions, their life style, their linguistic peculiarities and above all commonalities in their perceptions of living in the lap of the Himalayas. We believe that a mega plan has to be thought of with several components that are efficiently co-ordinated. Package visits to the circuit should become a grand attraction once the scheme is floated. The grand circuit would envisage construction of vast network of road connectivity in all the three states. It will also envisage increased air connectivity especial to the areas that are much closer to the picturesque Himalayas. It would mean building more airports and airstrips closer to the tourist spots. It would mean building chain of restaurants, hotels, eateries, showrooms for handicrafts and of community halls where cultural programmes would be performed for the entertainment of tourists. Above all, the most important thing is to develop tourist culture as the primary requirement of the tourist circuit. In western developed countries, there is paradigm shift from five star hotel destinations to paying guest destination. Most of the tourist department of European countries have offered technical, logistic and financial support to volunteering families among the civil society who are willing to accept tourists as paying guests in the families and thus giving them the feel of being at home in a new place. We in this country are better poised to offer paying guest facility to international and national tourists because of heterogeneity of our culture and life style.
However, as far as our State is concerned, we have to say with disappointment that our tourist industry has not progressed the way it should have despite the fact that we have so many attractive tourist destinations in all the three regions of the State. In the first place, we have failed to develop tourism in all the three regions uniformly. By focusing only on Kashmir valley, we have done disservice to the tourist industry as a whole. Jammu region has so many destinations and same is true of Ladakh. Perhaps Ladakh could have won the pride of place if sufficient attention was given to scientific development of tourist industry in the region. Secondly, we lack in developing and sustaining tourist culture. As we have hinted above, a number of services are affiliated to tourist industry. Tourist culture is the spirit and soul of tourist industry. Unfortunately we are adepts in fleecing the tourists, thereby inflicting grave injury to our tourist industry. The sale of culture is a delicate matter which only experts can plan. How best we can draw benefit from our cultural fund needs to be explored and implemented.
Let us cite an example. Amir Fort in Jaipur is an exceptionally attractive destination for any tourist or ordinary visitor to that historical city. Maintenance of that fort, which is a marvel in its right, is done by the tourist department with the entry fee charged from foreign and local visitors. We have some historical forts in all the three regions but we are not able to put these to tourist market. The Bhim Garh Fort in Reasi is a historical monument of the Dogra period. Owing to sheer neglect and apathy, and callous disregard of its utility to tourist industry of the State, this monument has been left to its fate. It is dilapidating owing to the vagaries of weather. The Governor of the State, in his capacity as the Chairman of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, offered to bear 40 per cent of expenditure on its repair and conservation from the funds of the Shrine Board and the remaining 60 per cent funds were required to be provided by the Department of Tourism and Culture. The Governor gave time schedule for completing the inner and outer components of work of this fort so that by the close of 2014, it would be thrown open to the tourists. But alas, lethargy and slackness on the part of the State functionaries, most of the work of conservation could not be completed in time. This is inexcusable and surely it does not help to develop tourist industry in a way we like.
It was a right step on the part of the Chief Minister to invite Bollywood industry to shoot films in Kashmir so that it contributes to propagating among the people the natural beauty of Kashmir. That is a right step and outstanding actor Salman Khan has spent forty days on mountain heights shooting his film. Such steps will be very effective in boosting our tourist industry. However, this actor has desired that cinema halls should be thrown open in Kashmir. He was surprised that the cinema halls remain closed. If cinema halls remain closed, what is the utility of Salman Khan and others shooting films in Kashmir? Kashmiris will not be able to watch it on big screened as long as the writ of the militants runs in the valley. Therefore, one can say that along with throwing invitation to Bollywood magnates, the Chief Minister should have also appealed to Kashmir militants to let the people of Kashmir especially youth enjoy the right to recreation as well.
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