Senior BJP leader and party’s J&K spokesman Altaf Thakur while welcoming the tourism boom after nearly three decades urged the government while celeberating the huge tourism influx, that there is a time to focus on infrastructure building and establishing more tourist attractions to provide a vast choice to the visiting guests including foreigners.
In a statement issued here, Thakur said it was a welcome development to see arrival of 2.5 Crore tourists including almost 55,000 foreign tourists in J&K till December 15 this year, its high time that there should be an upgrade of infrastructure to accommodate more and more tourists. He said while Kashmir has quality hotels, lodges and houseboats, the administration must start working on building further infrastructure to provide a vast range of choice to visitors.
The BJP leader said the administration must also work out a plan to protect, safeguard and to revive the age-old tourism attraction, the houseboats, whose number is fasting diminishing. He said that as the foreign tourists have started dating with Kashmir yet again after a long gap, credit goes to the successful G-20 summit held in Srinagar in May this year which set the ball rolling and attracted a large number of foreigners to J&K.
Thakur urged the tourism department to work out a plan to build quality infrastructure that includes 5 star and 7 star hotels in Srinagar and at all tourist destinations to provide a choice for the foreigners and domestic tourists.
He said the need for building infrastructure arises given the fact that the year 2023 records 2.5 crore tourist arrivals, the year ahead may see further rise and the figure may go up to 3 Crore. Thakur said that we should not only welcome and record high tourist influx but ensure quality facilities for them.
He said the tourism boom is not beneficial for the economy of almost 2 million people of J&K who are directly or indirectly linked with the tourism industry but to the overall economy of the UT which is largely dependent on the tourism sector that has remained ailing since the past 30 years.
