Srinagar, Oct 5: In a bid to woo high-end tourists to Kashmir, state government is “pitching hard for lifting of the negative travel advisories on J&K by foreign countries.”
 Replying in the legislative assembly here to a question by MLA Bharat Bhushan regarding the measures state has taken to promote tourism sector, minister of state for Tourism, Nasir Aslam Wani said the government is pitching hard for lifting of the negative travel advisories.
 “The process of removing negative travel advisories has started. Germany has already lifted the advisory and with further improvement in the situation other European and American countries may follow suit,” the minister said.
 He informed the House about “various incentives taken by state government to promote tourism industry.”
 “Tourism department has roped in Ogilvy and Mather Private Limited, a New Delhi-based advertising agency to manage the media plans of the department. Also a promotional film has been prepared which would be telecast on national and satellite TV channels at different intervals of time,” he said.
 “We have recently conducted road-shows and held business sessions with tourist operators in south –east Asia (Malaysia and Bangkok) and participated in the Petes- De – Geneva festival,” the minister said.
 On development programme for Srinagar city, it was given out: “A project has been sanctioned and is under execution for heritage conservation of Old Srinagar city (old Lal Ded Memorial School, Jamia Masjid, Cooper Bazaar and River view Front) at a cost of Rs 5 crore.”
 The minister said in future the tourist department will launch massive campaigns for promotion of tourism products categorized under categories: Heritage, Adventure, Pilgrim and Eco-tourism.
 The House was informed that the state government has amended Tourist Trade Act 1978 to make it “effective and relevant to the present day scenario.”

RURAL TOURISM
 It was given out that the state government will promote rural tourism.
 “53 projects have been submitted for sanction for the purpose. Besides, 29 projects have already been sanctioned at a cost of Rs 18.81 crore and Rs 15. 48 crore has been released and expenditure of Rs 14.93 crore has been incurred.”
 So far 19 projects have been completed.

Social Media
The House was informed that the government “is using social media for tourism promotion.”
However, this was taken with a pinch of salt by many in the House as the state government has “blocked social networking sites on GPRS.”
The House witnessed uproar when opposition PDP criticized government for “blocking the sites.”

Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Oct 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 5 Oct 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 6 Oct 2012 00:00:00 IST