Srinagar, June 3: With tourism at its peak in Kashmir Valley, the ‘get-up’ of Srinagar “International” Airport Sunday dominated discourse at a meeting of the concerned stakeholders here at the SK International Convention Centre (SKICC). In unison, a number of travel agents, hoteliers and other people associated with the tourism industry called an end to, what they called, “the war-like getup” of the Srinagar Airport “in a bid to facilitate free flow of tourists to the Valley.”
 In an interactive session with Talat Pervez, who was recently appointed as Director Tourism, the travel agents said the “war-like getup of Srinagar Airport is scaring tourists who arrive here.” This, they said, is “going to hamper inflow of more tourists to the Valley and therefore needs to be addressed on priority.”
 “The Airport has to be a place where tourists feel comfortable. It is better to have its get-up accordingly. There is no point having security grid at the airport that frightens them. If the get-up of Srinagar Airport is changed, we shall certainly have more tourists. Otherwise it is going to be the other way round and we shall continue to lose tourism on account of flimsy security concerns,” a group of travel agents said during the interaction. “The strict security grid sends a wrong signal outside through the tourists who visit the Valley and face unnecessary troubles.”
 The travel agents, hoteliers and houseboat owners also called for freeing hotels “occupied by forces in the Valley” for the past two decades. “We are facing dearth of hotels in the Valley. It would be in the fitness of things if they (forces) vacate the hotels they are presently holding,” they said.
 In response to the issues, the Director Tourism Talat Pervez said he would take up the matter with Police authorities. “If it is really a problem that weakens our tourism sector, I would certainly take it up with police authorities for redress,” Pervez said.
 He said the interactive session is “aimed at synergizing ideas concerning trade and tourism.”
 Talat said the Department would soon introduce a tourism portal where information about tourism-related things would be uploaded.
Convener INTACH, Muhammad Saleem Beg and former DG Tourism Muhammad Ashraf were also present on the occasion.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST