Srinagar, May 2: With a aim to boost up the tourist flow to the state, the tourism department is planning to organize a road show in Southeast Asian countries.
 The show, as per the officials, is likely to take place in August this year.
 “We have a very huge potential of tourists in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia Singapore, Bangkok, Taiwan and Hong Kong etc. We are trying our best to tap this market. These countries are showing very good response to Kashmir as a tourist destination. So in order to grab more tourists from these countries we want the people from travel trade here to have a road show in these countries,” said director tourism Kashmir Farooq Ahmad Shah.
 “We want that the people associated with travel trade here should have good interaction with the tour operators in Southeast Asian countries,” he added.
 The road show was initially planned for April 29 but on the request of the tour operators in the valley, the department has decided to postpone it to August.
 “They (tour operators) suggested that the tour operators in these countries may not be available for such activities in the present month so with the mutual consensus we have postponed it till August,” said Farooq Shah.
 Shah said the department was trying hard to promote Kashmir as a tourist destination. “We are trying that the travel advisories being put on the state should be removed. If people can travel to Sri lanka and other places why should they not travel here?” he asked.
 “We are also planning a golf championship in May for which we will invite ambassadors from all countries and will suggest them to promote Kashmir at their places,” he added.
 Talking about the planned road show, General Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir Tourism Alliance (JKTA) Nasir Shah said this show will help them to promote different destination in Kashmir and will also help in the encouraging of the new destinations.
 “The tourists from these countries usually travel here for two to four days which they spend either in Gulmarg or in Srinagar. We will try to motivate them to extend their visits and stay at other good destinations,” he said.
 “The tourist traffic to Kashmir from these places mostly remains from the month of December to March but we will try to make them come here even in the months of August, September and October which is the lean period for tourism in our state,” he added.
 About the postponement, Nasir said, “The important reason for which we demanded the change was that the tour operators in these countries are not available during these months which would have made our visit meaningless.”
 “At the end of this month the tourism season ends in these countries, so the tour operators there start traveling to different places to gain the product knowledge and to come across new destinations for the coming season. They visit different places to know the new destinations available and to discuss rates etc,” he said.
  “They keep on traveling during these months and come back only in the month of August. Hence we suggested August to be the right time for the show,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 2 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 2 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 3 May 2010 00:00:00 IST