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Tourism Deptt to organize more such events to attract foreign tourists: Priya Sethi
13 foreign teams participate in 10-day ‘Expedition India-2017’ event
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SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 13: In a
first of its kind, Kashmir is hosting an international adventure race ‘Expedition
India-2017’ being organized by Johannesburg based adventure company Kinetic Events
in collaboration with Department of Tourism and J&K Bank.
Minister of State for Tourism, Priya Sethi welcomed the guests during
the opening ceremony held here at SKICC , while as the first leg of the
downhill race was flagged off jointly by Commissioner Secretary Tourism, M H
Malik and Chairman J&K Bank, Parvez Ahmad here at Shankarachary temple hill in
presence of Director Tourism Kashmir, Mahmood A Shah, Deputy Directors of
Tourism Riyaz Ahmad Beigh and Peerzada Zahoor.
Around 14 teams including 13 foreign teams and a local team is
participating in the event.
On the occasion, Priya Sethi said Jammu and Kashmir is blessed with
diverse culture and natural beauty and the travellers from all over the world
should visit here. She said the Department would organize more such events in
the future to attract more foreign travellers to the State.
She said it was very encouraging that foreigners from different
countries visited this place for an international event despite travel
advisories.
“This shows
that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is safe for travelling and the tourists
here are feeling safe,” she added.
Commissioner Secretary Tourism, M H Malik also complimented the foreign
teams on choosing Kashmir and Ladakh for this mega event. He said that the
State is a complete package for travellers in terms of different types of
tourism.
He said there is a misconception among the travellers about Kashmir not
being safe.
“However
with these events we want to dilute that misconception and attract travellers
to State. We have all kind of tourism products to offer from pilgrim tourism to
culture tourism and adventure tourism to leisure tourism, whatever you name it,
we have it,” said the Commissioner Secretary Tourism.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman J&K Bank said the Bank
understands its role well and has always acted as a catalyst for the various
sectors of the economy. He said the bank aims to promote youth entrepreneurship
in tourism.
“Tourism
has a good scope in J&K and we are ready to provide any customized products
for the youth so that they develop entrepreneurial skills in tourism and launch
tourism products,” he said.
He said J&K Bank enjoys 60 percent share of market and is the only
listed company from J&K State.
“Ninety
percent of the local population is directly linked with the bank. There is a
lot of potential in tourism especially in adventure related activities. We are
ready to play a role in developing entrepreneurs in this sector,” he said.
Director Tourism Kashmir said the inflow of foreign tourists had gone
down, however due to such events we want to remove the negative perception
among the travellers around the world.
The biggest handicap to Kashmir tourism is the negative publicity, but
such expeditions which have a maximum participation from the foreign countries
will help us increase foreign influx, he added.
The Director said the Department is working on getting negative
advisories removed on Kashmir by inviting more foreign teams here.
“We have
best treks of Himalayas in Kashmir and Ladakah. The adventure activities like
Paragliding, skiing, trekking, white water rafting, cycling, rock climbing are
held here and we are conducting them on regular basis which saw good
participation from adventure lovers form the country and other foreign
countries,” he said.
Owners of the Kinetic Events and the organizers Stephan Mulle and Heidi
Mulle said though many countries have issued advisories against travelling
Kashmir, they found nothing bad here.
“We have
come here in the past and did all the preparations for this event. We did not
find anything wrong here. Everything is good and we are enjoying the stay here
besides people are also good,” said Deidi Mulllee.
On the first day today, the teams ran downhill from Shankaracharya
temple to Nehru Park Ghat where they rowed the shikrara to SKICC.
In the evening, the teams will move to Sonamarg where they will do
hiking before moving to Leh. The race will culminate in Nobra valley in Leh on September
22.
Each team has been equipped with GPS system which is tracking their
race. The GPS system attached to the athletes is also fed live on social media
giving considerable publicity to the event across the globe. Around 50000
people were watching the event live on the inaugural day today.
The event is also covered by 25 foreign media persons on a daily basis
who provide continuous coverage to the event.