NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said his government is planning to develop nine new tourism destinations across the Union Territory, expressing hope that the World Bank will put aside its “traditional sort of reluctance” to fund any project in J&K.
Seeking support of tourism players in promoting the industry back home, Abdullah highlighted the challenges posed by “ridiculous prices” of air tickets to and fro Kashmir and hoped for a relief by the inauguration of direct train by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coming days.
“We have nine new destinations in mind that we hope to get funded through a multilateral agency. We hope these destinations will ease some sort of pressure on Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg in the valley and also open up areas of Jammu hitherto undiscovered for tourism.
“Until those new destinations come up, the valley as we see it today is pretty much saturated. The moment the tulip garden is open, Srinagar for all intents and purposes grinds to a halt,” the chief minister said while addressing a tourism-related event here.
Later, answering the queries of some of the participants including K B Kachru, Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor, South Asia for the Radisson Hotel Group, Abdullah said his government has already worked on these nine destinations.
“Before we open those destinations to private investment like yours (Radisson) in the hotel industry and other things, we need to make sure that the amenities are in place, including connectivity, electricity, water, etc. And that is where the multilateral funding comes in that I talked about,” he said.
The chief minister said the World Bank has already agreed to fund the project report preparation. “So that now will kick off and the moment that is done, we are then going to approach the same agencies. Hopefully, the World Bank will put aside its traditional sort of reluctance to fund anything in J&K.”
He said it is about Rs 5,500 crore investment that the J&K government is looking at for raising the basic infrastructure at these nine destinations.
“The moment that starts, then parallel to that, we will be asking people like you to come forward and invest in hotels and other tourism related infrastructure,” the chief minister said.
Abdullah said his government is going to work with tourism bodies and others to see how “we can move Jammu and Kashmir up the value chain in terms of tourism that is not so much volume-based”.
“As it is value-based and for that obviously the experience has to improve the quality of what we provide our tourists has to get better in terms of hotels, in terms of the experiences that we provide and in terms of the feel-good factor that they have when they come back. What we need to try and ensure is that tourists leave Jammu and Kashmir with a sense that they want to come back,” he said.
Admitting that the government has not been able to grow tourism in Jammu, he said even though one crore pilgrims come for ‘darshan’ of Mata Vaishno Devi annually, “you need to divert 10-15 per cent of them to other pilgrimage sites and destinations”.
Tourism in Jammu region is unique, the chief minister said, adding Jammu’s positioning needs to be built around its heritage, around its history, around the religious side of it and the border part of it.
“And that is something which is going to get focused attention. All nine proposed destinations are not in the valley. Part of these are in the valley and part in Jammu,” he said.
Highlighting the exorbitant rates of air tickets to and fro Kashmir valley, he said PM Modi is visiting the UT to flag off the Vande Bharat train that will connect Jammu to Srinagar, thus integrating the rail network of the valley with the rest of the country.
“Therein again that will bring its own challenges linked to what I had said earlier. Rail normally means volume. The easy availability of access into the valley means volumes will go up. So how do we balance the increased volumes on account of the train with our need to move up the value chain and make tourism in Jammu and Kashmir more value-based,” he said.
The chief minister said his government will have focused attention on electric vehicles and is also open to helicopter service to link tourist destinations.
“We are open (to introduce helicopter services). If anyone is interested, by all means, come forward. Currently, all we have is the subsidized service for local people in the winter to connect the disconnected areas,” he said.
On the introduction of more cable car services, he said “we need to be selective and careful as to where we locate them, so that they actually survive and make money, rather than sort of disappear.” (PTI)