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| Vision document on tourism hanging in balance even after 8 months of announcement | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 26: Fate of the state Government's plan on preparing a vision document and a Master plan for sustainable tourism is still unknown. Over eight months ago the Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather, had announced, while presenting the budget proposals for the year 2009-2010 in the state Assembly, that the Government ha invited offers from the prospective consultants for this purpose and the same was under examination by a committee constituted for this purpose.
After over eight months Finance Minister has stated that 11 technical experts have been shortlisted and their offers were being analysed. When will the experts be asked to prepared the vision document and how many months or years will it take for the experts to finalize the document ?The answer to the questions depends on the time the Government will take in finalising its decision on allotting the work.
Government has decided to increase the annual financial allocations for the tourism sect or to R s.160 crores which indicates that the ruling coalition is keen to revive tourism industry which had been hit by 20-year long militancy and the global meltdown .One thing has been confirmed that despite scenic places and spots in Jammu and Kashmir only pilgrim tourist traffic seems to have remained a sustainable activity. This is so that despite 20-year long militancy related violence the rush of pilgrims to the Mata Devi Shrine and to the Amarnath cave has registered an upward curve. The annual pilgrim traffic figure to Mata Vaishnov Devi shrine has increased from 35 lakh to nearly 80 lakhs during the last 20 years. Similarly the number of pilgrims to the holy cave of Amarnath has increased from over 15,000 to over three lakh during the last 20 years.
Official sources said that the state Government has decided to allot funds to sever al development authorities for identifying and developing new tourist resorts in Jammu and Kashmir so that visitors did not restrict their stay and trip to the old and much frequented resorts only. Indications are that after the Mughal road is thrown open it may attract trekkers who wish to travel on foot from Poonch to Shopian in south Kashmir. Sources said that the Government has decided to encourage private sector in developing tourist resorts and in construction of hotels and guest houses, especially in those spots which were to be thrown open to tourists for the first time. According to these sources, success of tourist traffic, especially to Kashmir will depend on the security scenario.
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