Allow local tourists to visit Pahalgam: Tourism bodies

Various stake holders related to Pahalgam tourism on Sunday requested the administration to allow the local tourists from other districts to visit Pahalgam so that local businesses could manage their survival due to COVID-19 aftermath. The sentiment was raised in a meeting held by the Tourism Trade fraternity with the local Pahalgam Hoteliers, Tourist Taxi Operators, Adventure Operators, Pony Wallas and other tourism allied service providers of Pahalgam, here at Pahalgma. The tourism trade representatives requested that since there are no tourists coming from outside, it would be good if administration would allow locals to visit Pahalgam so that local tourism stake holders of Pahalgam could manage their survival. The representatives were informed that J&K Tourism department and the stake holders are trying their best to see that tourism returns to Kashmir as early as possible and new SOPs are laid down by the UT administration to facilitate the arrival of the tourists. The Pahalgam Trade representatives were briefed about following all new norms such as physical distancing of six feet, use of sanitisers regularly and sanitising of vehicles and pony saddles on daily basis The meeting was also attended by Bilal Ahmad Mir, AD Tourism Pahalgam and Social environmentalist Mushtaq Pahalgami. Those who briefed the Pahalgam Trade were Mir Anwar, President TASK, Manzoor Pakhtoon, Chairman JKTA, Nasir Shah, Chairman PILTOF &Akram Siah, Chairman TTIG. Others who also attended the briefing were Abdul Wahid Malik, Showkat Pakhtoon, Ali Mohd Shangloo& VP Epoch Marketing Aijaz Wani.