Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 10: Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) on Monday, 10th August 2020, organized a webinar titled ‘Jammu Tourism: Opportunities & Challenges.’ The webinar aimed at deliberating on the issues concerning travel and hospitality sector in Jammu division.
Speaking on the occasion, Subhash Goyal, Honorary Secretary FAITH said, “Jammu has a lot of places of tourist interest. Jammu should be developed as the base of the tourist circuits.”
The next panelist, Rajesh Gupta, Chairman Tourism Federation Jammu mentioned, “Union Territory of J&K has twenty districts, all of which have potential to attract tourists. In this new regime, we are hoping for equitable development and promotion, also of the completion of languishing projects.”
Ajay Khajuria, Former Director Tourism Jammu noted, “The Jammu region is dotted with meadows, peaks, valleys, and forests. Foreign tourists looking for culture and heritage can be attracted towards Jammu, especially in winters. For instance, they can be made aware about Basohli, the home of world renowned miniature paintings, or the well crafted architectural gems across region, or Akhnoor, the northern most point of Indus valley civilization and also a Buddhist site.”
According to Rakesh Wazir, President Hotel & Restaurant Association Katra said, “Jammu is one of those regions, which offer almost all of the kinds of tourism people can associate themselves with, such as religious tourism (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shiv Khori, Sukrala Mata, Buddha Amarnath ji, Machail Mata, etc), recreational tourism (Patnitop, Sanasar, Mansar-Surinsar, Bhaderwah, etc), and so on.” He recalled Parvez Dewan’s contribution in enhancing tourist footfall in Jammu by promoting and developing several places.
Owis Altaf Syed, Director Skyview Patnitop by Empyrean Jammu, said, “Jammu also lot of nature trails, small hill stations which have never really been spoken about or promoted. We need to capture it, and promote it aggressively.”
Furthermore, Deepika K Sharma, Executive Director Mubarak Mandi Jammu Heritage Society said, “The packages need to be devised in a way that people go around the region.
The inflow of tourists is already there, we need to manage them well. Development has been an issue.”
In his closing remarks, Subhash Goyal stated that the authorities and concerned stakeholders of tourism can start a committee ‘Jammu travel mart’ or Jammu tourism mart’ and work in a time-bound and result-oriented manner. |
