By IANS,
Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government has engaged a consultancy firm to identify tourism potential areas and suggest measures for their development.
Announcing this in the assembly Saturday, Minister for Tourism Rigzin Jora claimed that the “agency was of international repute”. He did not name the agency.
“The consultancy would conduct a comprehensive survey in all three regions — the Kashmir Valley, Ladakh and Jammu — and suggest measures to harness the tourism potential more optimally. We want to tap all these areas,” the minister said.
More than one million tourists visited the Kashmir Valley in 2009. Of these 500,000 were Hindu pilgrims visiting the Amarnath cave. Jammu gets some eight million tourists every year. A majority are Hindu pilgrims.
The state has contacted the Goa Institute of Water Sports to recommend measures for promoting water sports in the Baglihar Dam lake, which is spread over 50 sq km in Ramban and Doda districts, he said