Srinagar, Jan 27 (KNS): To attract tourists to Kashmir, J&K Hoteliers Club is scheduled to organise road show at Mumbai to tap Maharashtra market and Bollywood.
Chairman Hoteliers Club Mushtaq Chaya said they been in Mumbai for past couple of days in connection with their road show in the city.
“We will be inviting leading tour operators and destination sellers during our show and showcase them our tourism products. We are also in touch with famous bollywood stars and also filmmakers who will attend our show. Bollywood shooting promotes Kashmir as a scenic destination at global level. Their participation is must for our show. During the shows, we also invite both regional and national media to cover the event and sensitize them how important it is for them to cover positive stories,” said Chaya while talking to Kashmir News Service (KNS).
Chaya visited Mumbai during Out Bound Travel Mart (OTM) and promoted J&K’s tourism potential. On the sidelines of the OTM, Hoteliers Club met various travel trade bodies from Mumbai and also set meetings for Bollywood filmmakers for the first week of February to invite them for road show.
Chaya said Road Show are important to create a buzz about Kashmir and send a positive message among travellers that they should not miss visiting Kashmir.
“Though, our state gets meager funding for tourism promotion, the hotel, travel and houseboat associations have been doing commendable job by organising road shows across many cities in India.”
Recently, Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Owners Association conducted its Road Show in Pune wherein over 100 travel agents participated. The travel agents are the main sellers of the destination who we mostly target during these road shows. It benefits us a big deal. Our state needs more and aggressive promotions than other state as we are receiving lesser number of tourists.
The members who participate in these shows also get an opportunity to network with their potential clients and agents to promote their companies.
Chaya said they are organizing road shows in collaboration with the department of tourism.
“We are thankful to the department of tourism for taking tourism stakeholders on board for its publicity campaigns. Overall it is a joint effort, in which we need to collaborate with each other.”
Besides road shows, the Hoteliers Club will also engage PR company from Mumbai for maximum coverage to the road show and also create liaison with the company for tourism promotion.
“Kashmir is already in the hearts and minds of the travellers. They crave to visit JK especially Kashmir which is truly a paradise on Earth. However, we suffer from wrong perception that Kashmir is not safe for tourists, which hinders our growth.
We need to develop PR with regional media. During our show, we will be hiring PR agency, which will give mileage to our show and create a positive buzz in the city, he said.
Chaya expressed optimism that the year 2019 will be good for Kashmir tourism.
“During our campaigning in several cities, we are getting good response from the travellers and our principal agents across the country. Allah has also been benevolent with timely and plenty snowfall this season which brings cheers among travellers. We are hopeful of this year’s tourism will be good.” (KNS)