Tourism Minister To Visit J&K, Ladakh Next Month

A team of officials from the Union tourism ministry, led by minister Prahlad Patel, will be touring Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh next month. He said two recent decisions of the government — on e-visas and on opening up 137 peaks, 15 of which were in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, for foreign tourists — would boost the tourist footfall in the region, which in turn would help in the growth of both revenue-generating and employment opportunities. Patel listed four key elements of his plan to prepare the two Union territories for tourism — upgrading manpower, which would include training guides, build awareness on the bread-and-breakfast scheme, asking people to open up their homes at places where there is a shortage of hotels, give them basic training to run them and also promote adventure sports in a big way.