SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today held an interactive session with the team of World Bank to have detailed deliberations over the development and promotion of several off-beat tourism destinations across the UT here. The session besides the team members from the World Bank (WB) was attended by Commissioner Secretary, Tourism; Director Tourism, Jammu/Kashmir; Director, Handicrafts & Handloom, Kashmir; MD, JKTDC and other officers. Chief Secretary took this occasion to highlight various initiatives taken by the administration. He remarked that this region has its unique strengths and challenges to deal with. He maintained that the three core areas where J&K wants to march ahead are Horticulture, Hospitality and Handicrafts for which it is well-known all over the world. Dulloo urged the WB team to extend their assistance and expertise to help J&K devise a robust tourism promotion plans for several off-beat tourism destinations in both the divisions here. He pitched for framing of roadmap for all these places keeping in view the ecology and environment and hence a sustainable development plan for all these new tourism destinations. In her presentation Commissioner Secretary, Tourism, Yasha Mudgal gave out the detailed overview of the tourism scenario of J&K. She also justified the need for development of these additional tourist spots to relieve pressure on the traditional ones which are being explored beyond their carrying capacity. She gave an overview of current trends of tourist visits and future projections thereof. She then went on to enumerate the potential destinations across J&K that can be taken up for sustainable development in association with World Bank. She also threw light on the areas of development at these new places besides apprising the WB team about gap analysis done by the Department and inherent strengths of these locations in terms of attracting the tourists. The vision for sustainable tourism was shared with the team for their suggestions. The selection criteria of these destinations was too revealed along with their phasing, process of their development, methodology, project timelines along with the kind of support needed from Ministry of Tourism and World Bank together. Later a presentation was made by Director, Handicrafts & Handloom Kashmir, Mehmood Shah to support the Handicrafts sector here in the UT. He highlighted the need for having a world class consultancy for formulating a strategy to optimally tap its potential here. Besides, the team was apprised about the requirement of developing an e-commerce platform where genuine handicrafts could be marketed exclusively. The other proposals that came up for discussion in this regard included development of handicrafts-clusters, branding, marketing of handicraft products, establishing common facility centres (CFCs) and enhancing the capacity of artisans in addition to strengthening the training institutions meant for transferring skills of these art forms from old to younger generations.
