Srinagar June 2, 2020(KNS) : Director Tourism, Nisar Ahmad Wani today said that the Department of Tourism Kashmir would aggressively market J&K as a top tourist destination in the upcoming events after the pandemic stricken situation is normalized. He emphasized to promote additional services such as food tourism after the lockdown restrictions are relaxed.
The Director sought help from the newly constituted Restaurant and Café Association (RAK) to create awareness among the restaurant owners to register their food outlets as per the government order no.154 dated 24/03/2016 with the Department of Tourism which is a mandatory clause failing of which action will be initiated on the defaulter. President RAK, Feroz Sheikh ensured the director that each RAK member will make it necessary to register their food outlets with the department, in response the tourism director promised that full support will be provided to the food outlets in the making their registration process smooth and hassle-free.
During the meeting, Tourism director in presence of other members including Joint Director, Tabasum Kamili, Dy. Director (admin) Sammar Naik, Dy. Director (publication), Adeel Saleem, Dy. Director (Estates), Nighat Alam, and Dy. Director (Registration), Ahsan ul Haq Chesti was appraised on the current situation that Restaurant and Café are facing in resuming their business activities, and expressed fear that reluctance from the people to eat out would impact hugely on their health of the business in the upcoming months when restrictions will be relaxed. The director advised that set guidelines would be issued when relaxed phase reaches where it would be safe to open the restaurants and café in the valley. It would be mandatory to change the serving setting while attending the clients to contain the spread of the virus and social distancing would be the mainstay in the resuming the restaurant business.
The tourism director expressed his willingness to extend every support to the Restaurant and Café to promote food tourism alongside other tourism activities. It is a good step that this forum is established to help the destination tourism in promoting the different tourism activities including the food tourism and expressed willingness to work collectively for the better future of tourism in the valley.
The meeting was attended by RAK members including Sheikh Feroz, 7C’s Café n Fine Dine; Iqbal Tramboo, CCD; Babar Chowdhary, Hatrick; Sheikh Imran, Waterfall; Mir Muneeb, The Otherside Café; Sajad Bala, Red, and White; Athar Yamin, Alif the Cafe (KNS)