A group of six Gujarat tour operators covered 18000 kilometres road trip in states and Union Territories to reach Kashmir for a one night stop over.
The six tour operators from Surat, Ahmedabad and one from Mumbai teamed up to promote domestic tourism and would leave for Leh on Friday morning.
Rajeev Shah, a tour operator, said the tourism sector across India has suffered Rs 5 crore job losses due to the pandemic.
“There has been 40 per cent job cuts in the tourism and hospitality sector across the country. The travel industry also deserves to be revived. Currently international travel is not possible and with an endeavor to support the message ‘vocal for local’ and persuade Indians to travel domestically, we have commenced this road trip of 18000 kms within 36 days,” Shah said.
Other participants include Ritesh Parekh, Sanjay Patel, Nitin Gupta all from Surat, Thomas Koshy from Ahmedabad and Pawan Dubey from Mumbai.
“We are looking forward to welcome tourists with utmost health and safety measures. This expedition will enable people to gradually begin travelling and the travel industry will revive thereafter for sure,” Parekh said.
The expedition was hosted by the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) J&K Chapter and J&K Tourism Department.
The tour operators were received here by Commissioner Secretary Tourism, Sarmad Hafeez at the Royal Springs Golf Course. “Creating awareness and promotion is much needed to revive the tourism sector which has been hit badly,” said Hafeez.