Develop more tourist destinations

Amid the record tourist arrival for last few years, there is a need to develop more tourist destinations. There are lot of places, which have to be brought on the tourist map and developed. The infrastructure has to be developed at such spots for the facility of visitors. If infrastructure related facilities are there, visitors from different parts of the country as also the foreigners will visit the places in large number. The people around such places too should reap the benefits of the booming tourism. The government has reconstituted 21 Tourism Development Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir. It is a good step and is being welcomed by the  stakeholders in tourism sector. The reconstituted Tourism Development Authorities include that at Pahalgam, Gulmarg,  Doodpathri, Sonamarg, Lolab-Bangus-Dangyari, Bhaderwah, Surinsar-Mansar, and Bani-Basholi. According to the authorities the move is expected to streamline decision making processes and expedite development projects in these areas. They added that this restructuring aims at bringing about more efficient management and coordinated development efforts across the diverse tourist spots in J&K. While it is a good move but at the same time focus should be also on more tourist destinations, which have the potential and can be developed in a big way. Thousands of people depend upon good tourism. At the same time most people rely on the apple growing and trade, which is considered as the backbone of Kashmir economy. Efforts have to be made to further strengthen this sector, since it is seeing some ups and downs for last several years due to various challenges. At the same time the area of tourism sector too has to be widened. That way more tourist places will get developed and more people benefitted. The advantages of tourism must not remain confined to a few known and established destinations. These developed and established destinations surely require further development but at the same time other places too have to get attention. Going by the increasing importance of tourism, this sector has to touch more people. But we must remeber, and ensure, that develoment doesn’t happen at the cost of natural beauty, ecology and bio-diversity.