Srinagar, Oct 5: When they were graced at the prestigious 58th Indian Travel Congress, a mega exhibition in Dubai, there was none from their home to pat on their back.
 The 25 Valley tour operators back home from Dubai where they bagged the prestigious award of appreciation for their excellence in serving tourism industry said despite their invitation, no senior official from J&K had attended the event. 
 The group that arrived on Saturday told Greater Kashmir that the event was attended by more than 1500 tour operators from different parts of India and other countries. They said to promote their states, senior officials from different parts of India participated the event. The secretary tourism, government of India was also present on the occasion. “If anyone was missing from the event it was the Tourism Department of J&K,” they said.
 The operators said by not sending any representative the J&K government had “lost a good opportunity to promote tourism in the Gulf where huge number of people wanted to visit the Valley.”
 The 3-day 58th convention and exhibition “India Travel Congress” was organized by the Travel Agents Association of India in Dubai from September 26. Some 1500 tour operators from India and United Arab Emirates and some other places attended the exhibition. 25 private tour operators from J&K attended the exhibition. On the occasion J&K chapter of TAAI was conferred appreciation award for its excellence in serving tourism industry here.
 Sonam Wangcho a tour operator from Ladakh said tourism officials were conspicuous by their absence at the event. “They should have sent a representative to deliberate on the state tourism and let the tourists know the present situation in the state.”
 Former chairman TAAI, J&K chapter, Ghulam Rasool Siah said Dubai was the gateway of middle- east and Tourism Department should have represented themselves there.
 The head of delegation from J&K, Nasir Shah said barring J&K, government officials from almost all the states of India were present there. “It was so embarrassing for us to be there without the representatives from our tourism department,” he said.
 Giving details about the event he said during the convention the need for more marketing, incentives, conferences and events was underscored, he said.
 Nasir said the convention suggested measures to overcome the economic meltdown. 
 Chairman TAAI, J&K chapter Haji Khazir Muhammad Dar welcomed the delegation at Srinagar International Airport on Saturday.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Oct 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 5 Oct 2009 18:30:00 GMT
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