By Rohan Agarwal and Siddhi Jain
New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS) With eye on developing manpower and promote exchanges between the tourist and the locals in the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a special roadmap had been prepared, Union minister of Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel told IANS in an interview on Wednesday.
According to Patel, the government plans to rope in locals to promote tourism in the Valley. Under the 'Bed & Breakfast' scheme, the government will pay the locals who will offer food and shelter to tourists. "We will encourage locals to offer lodging facilities at their residences to tourists," Patel said.
Patel said upgradation of manpower, which would include training guides, asking people to host tourists at their homes in areas where there was shortage of hotels and give them basic training was required to boost tourism in the two new UTs -- J&K and Ladakh.
The ministry also plans to motivate Kashmiri youth to go for online training schemes, which could help them become tourist guides and provide a source of income. "We will primarily focus on upgrading manpower and offer them training facilities in Delhi and J&K as well as online," Patel said.
Patel said there were no major difference in the plans for Leh and Kashmir.
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz