Srinagar, Jan 24: Stating that the peace was key to promotion of tourism in the state, Minister for Tourism, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, today said the government was committed to promote Kashmir as safe tourist destination. 
  “Peace is necessary for the development of tourism sector and if tourism players help sustain the peace in the state, I assure them that the government will do all it can to promote the Kashmir tourism not only at national level but throughout the world,” Mir told Greater Kashmir on the sidelines of his meeting today with the Valley-based tourism players at SKICC here.
  “Tourism has a great potential and it can provide livelihood to thousands of youth in the valley. I think if we can develop tourism sector in a proper way our major problem of unemployment can be easily solved,” he said, adding that his priority’s as the tourism minister would be to expand the scope of tourism activities to the unexplored areas so that maximum population of the state would be  benefited by the lucrative industry.
 Mir acknowledged that there were some grievances of the tourism players which he assured would be addressed. “There are some issues relating to infrastructure, grievances of houseboat owners, shikarawallas, etc,. I assured them that their issues will be resolved within a short span of time.”
 Meanwhile the tourism players assured the minister their support in his “endeavor to promote the tourism sector.” “We had a cordial interaction with the minister and we assured him our support for the promotion of the tourism industry,” said Asif Burza, Chairman, CII Kashmir Zone.
 President, Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHARA), Showkat Chowdhary said: “We urged the minister to allocate specific places for the construction of hotels and also impress upon authorities to give permission for the upgradation of existing infrastructure.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
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