Jammu and Kashmir Minister of State for Tourism Priya Sethi has sought to allay concerns over security of tourists and said that tourist footfall has increased in recent times. She listed various measures being undertaken by the J&K government to promote tourism. “The government of Jammu and Kashmir is taking all steps to make that secure. For the tourists to come there, visit there, the department of tourism, headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, has taken many measures to definitely welcome our guests, tourists,” Sethi said.
Citing the example of terror incidents in Europe and elsewhere, she said the scourge is being faced all over the world. “Tourism Police for the service of tourists is also in place in Jammu and Kashmir,” the minister said. The state, comprising Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions, has received more than a crore of tourists in recent times and the tourist arrivals are on the upswing, she said. Highlighting well-known tourism destinations in J&K, she said, “We have a platter of everything – adventure tourism, pilgrimage tourism among others.”
The state is developing tourism destinations, including circuits of Sufi shrines, pilgrimage centres of Shiva temples and also monasteries, the minister said. Many filmmakers, including from the southern states, have shot in the state in recent times and a single-window system is in place for their benefit, officials said. “It is much cheaper for a film unit to shoot in Kashmir than going to foreign locations,” they said. Attractive packages are also being offered to tourists visiting various destinations in the state, the officials added.
In another development, CM Mufti has allotted the key tourism portfolio to her younger brother Tassaduq Mufti who, along with another PDP legislator Javaid Mustafa Mir, was inducted into the state cabinet.
