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| German lady boosting Gulmarg serenity | | |
Srinagar, August 17- A German lady married to an Indian travel writer is promoting community driven eco-tourism in Kashmir and developing Gulmarg as the best ski resort in the world.
Backed by her experience in the north-east where she has worked extensively for promotion of eco-friendly rural tourism, Carin Juda made a power point presentation, 'Ski Gulmarg Campaign', Thursday before Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Tourism Minister Muhammad Dilawar Mir. Chief Secretary, C. Phunsog and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Anil Goswami were also present.
"My idea is to assure maximum participation by high quality tourists in the upcoming winter and spring season and devise ways and means to permanently place Gulmarg on the list of world-class ski destinations", Carin said after the presentation. She has closely studied Gulmarg since she arrived here last December and believes that the recommendations made by her in the presentation, if implemented, could assure a steady, increasing, and uninterrupted flow of ski tourists in the future.
The Chief Minister appreciated the initiative taken by Carin Juda and the amount of research she had undertaken while making her conclusions and recommendations. He said that the tourism development was a priority in the government strategy and described Gulmarg as the icon of Kashmir tourism. He said measures were afoot to up-grade infrastructure facilities at tourist destinations and enroute. As many as 15 more tourism development authorities were set up to enhance the tourism profile of Jammu & Kashmir, he said. The total number of these authorities has now gone up to 22, he added.
Azad supported the community initiative in developing eco-tourism in the state saying that people's participation could play a major role in this area. He said mass awareness for preserving heritage sites and tourist places was as important as government initiatives to develop these.
As immediate marketing strategy, Carin proposes several measures including visit of select foreign diplomats from Delhi as image building exercise, linking Ski Gulmarg campaign to international and domestic air carriers and advertising Ski Gulmarg in all in-flight magazines. She advocated charging an environmental impact fee as part of toll saying foreign tourists would not mind paying it. She also recommended making registration forms for foreign tourists available on flight and ensuring that the registration procedure on ground took minimum time.
Carin stressed on the need to upgrade accommodation at Gulmarg, provide access to English newspapers, improve in-room entertainment for international tourists, standardization of Gulmarg orientation package in each room and institution of 'zero waste' programme on the lines of Kowalam in Kerala. She also recommended improvements in Gondola service like streamlining boarding procedure rules, introduction of daily, weekly and season's tickets for skiers to encourage them stay longer at Gulmarg and according priority to skiers for boarding Gondola through Green Channel to save time.
The German lady, herself also a travel writer, favoured development of eco-friendly rural or village tourism by inviting non-governmental organizations and community leaders to participate in promotional schemes. She also called for instituting local employment generating programmes like 'trash petrol', recycling of waste and staffing of public toilets.
Tourism Minister Muhammad Dilawar Mir also welcomed the effort put in by Carin to study Gulmarg and make a presentation on how the facilities could be improved for tourists visiting the resort. He said the recommendations made by her would be considered while taking further development measures.
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