Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 27: Tourism Minister, Tasaduq Mufti, today said the State needs to create alternate and positive stories to change its perception among tourists.
Addressing a press conference along with president, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Sunil Kumar, ahead of the 64th convention of the apex travel agents body, Mufti said there should be strategies in place to attract tourists.
“You have to create alternate stories and a civil society is very responsible for that, because unless you do not create points of focus elsewhere, this problem will persist. We have to create positive stories amongst ourselves and then talk about those,” the Minister said.
He termed the TAAI convention as historic and said events like these would help the State create a positive perception and attract tourists. “This is a historic event and we could not have hoped for a better start for the year. I see TAAI’s attention to detail in the way they organize things and the observations that they have made so far about the state… some fine ideas have already started flowing,” he said.
The Tourism Minister said there is need for creating opportunities and to have strategies in place. “We have to start by creating opportunities and by talking to the world outside and also to have strategies in place because, God willing this will be a very wonderful year, but then things could go wrong as they often do. So, I think the need is to strategise and also make these partnerships more tangible, and create associations that are specific with people,” he added.
Mufti said the department is working on a comprehensive tourism policy which would cover all those issues. “When you frame a comprehensive tourism policy, these things are a part of that. That will be a part of our overall vision, our overall policy. I think if we keep our city vibrant, if we keep our culture vibrant, we have other stories to talk about, we have wonderful kids who are doing well, we have events like this, it will change perception,” he said.
Mufti said Kashmir is safe for tourists and other people and there was no need to worry about this. He said a TAAI convention is what the government of Jammu and Kashmir initiated to help undo the negative perception being created by some about the tourism scenario here.
The Minister said that the pollution of the rivers and lakes has to be immediately stopped so as to attract tourists here. “We have been polluting our rivers and lakes. This trend has to be reversed immediately so that environmental awareness keeps pace with the development of the tourist industry in Kashmir,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, the TAAI president exuded confidence of attracting tourists to Kashmir. “I must mention emphatically here that TAAI convention itself addresses the lot of matters that have come up (about perception),” he said.
Kumar said the speakers participating in the convention will chalk out a strategy and will brainstorm ideas to bring Kashmir on the global tourism map.
The TAAI President expressed confidence that the conference will boost tourism in Kashmir. “…We are very confident on behalf of TAAI that once you see this convention concludes successfully the visibility of Kashmir as tourism destination will multiply many times and this would result in more tourists coming to Kashmir,” said Kumar.
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