J&K to develop 9 tourism destinations with WB funding: Omar

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 CM said.

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 CM 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 CM 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.

J & K