Excelsior Sports Correspondent
Bhaderwah, Dec 30: Amid significant increase in the number of tourists during summers in recent years, Bhadarwah Development Authority (BDA) is aiming to attract quality winter tourists with a special focus on promoting snow games and to achieve it’s goal, a marathon with the tag line ‘Run Bhaderwah Run’ was organised here today.
The marathon was flagged off by Director Tourism Jammu, O P Bhagat along with CEO BDA Dr Rajinder Prasad Khajuria.
The campaign, in which 200 students drawn from different schools of Bhaderwah beside 25 NSS volunteers of GDC Bhaderwah led by Prof Devinder Kumar and officers from civil administration participated started from New Bus Stand Kotli Bhaderwah and after passing through different localities of the old town including Chobia link road, Mohallah Sarafan Dharampura, Masjid Mohalla, Passri Adda and College Link Road, culminated at New Bus Stand, where they were received by DDC Doda Anshul Garg.
“To give our plans a practical shape and to make our efforts a success, involvement of locals is mandatory. Today’s event is primarily aimed at to engage locals from different sections of the society especially youth and make them believe that winter tourism has a possibility here,” CEO BDA added.
“Tourism is the largest growing sector in the world and in India, tourism has become 2nd biggest industry and to be part of this rapidly growing sector, we need to introduce new places and open our doors for tourists in winters as well,” said Director Tourism Jammu, O.P.Bhagat, adding the campaign will offer visitors ample opportunities to engage in sports and entertainment all through the winter season.
“Locals have invested a lot and pinned all their hopes and future prospects in tourism industry and the decision to promote winter tourism will go a long way in not only boosting the economy of the region but will also help to tap growing unemployment among youth,”said Arif Rana, a participant.
Prominent among those who were present on the occasion include ADC Bhadarwah Dr Ravi Kumar Bharti, Prof Devinder Kumar, Dr. Iftkhar Malik and Arif Rana.
According to official’s figure issued by Bhaderwah Development Authority (BDA), 4,18000 tourists visited Bhadarwah valley in 2017 and 52,000 from April to September this year.
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