Srinagar: The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is known all over the world for Tourism and the tourism sector is one of the main contributors to the GDP of J&K.
The Tourism Industry earns huge foreign exchange and provides employment to thousands of unemployed youth. In order to strengthen and tap the potential of the tourism sector here, the government of Jammu and Kashmir has launched the Tourist Village Network program under Mission Youth to ensure balanced and equitable development of the tourism sector across the length and breadth of the UT.
The government has launched this program to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of Independence under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Under this initiative, the government aims to rejuvenate and transform more than 75 villages in the union territory by promoting tourism and giving sustainable employment to the youth.
The initiative launched under the mission of youth will work towards giving a facelift to the 75 villages that are already famous for their historical background, picturesque landscape and cultural importance.
This initiative is destined to promote homestays across the UT. The initiative will strengthen the rural economy in the region, turn youth into entrepreneurs and empower women by offering numerous opportunities for employment.
Remarking on this unique initiative, the Lieutenant Governor of J&K said that the administration will recognize the uniqueness of each village and showcase the landscape, foster the indigenous knowledge system and promote the cultural diversity and heritage of these villages.
More importantly, this initiative has also been launched keeping in view the potential of J&K for shooting purposes. The initiative is also aimed to promote the shooting of films and offer financial aid to the villages for their sustainable development.
All villages which are part of the initiative will also be provided a digital footprint. This move is also aimed at providing maximum job opportunities to the youth from different backgrounds and ensuring their participation in the policies that have an impact on their lives.
This initiative of the Tourist Village Network has the potential and propensity to mobilize the diverse geographical and socio-economic landscape of the union territory.
These are several regions in the union territory that despite having greater tourism potential, have not been able to garner requisite attention due to infrastructural bottlenecks.
Destinations that lag behind in the sphere of tourism infrastructure, can overcome the downsides by introducing homestays as a means of accommodation facilities for tourists which do not require heavy investment.
In this context, the government started the movement of promoting homestay tourism in the UT by launching Panchari, a village with mesmerizing beauty in the district of Udhampur as the first tourist village with homestays.
This new initiative will surely be the harbinger of change especially for those regions which have remained underdeveloped and neglected. The scheme has the potential to uplift the economic status of underdeveloped regions of the union territory.
This initiative will surely raise the living standard of the people of the region and will expose the inhabitants of the region to tourists from across the nation and globe and will make them more productive, agile, versatile, and resourceful.
The scheme will also lead to cultural enrichment as people from different socio-cultural, socio-economic backgrounds as well as people from across the globe are destined to meet in a homestay type of ambiance, thereby leading to cultural exchange in the long run.
This will help in the exchange of better and more sophisticated practices in and around the world in the tourism sector and allied activities. It will also help in exploring new markets for handicrafts and handlooms of UT for which it is known all over the world.