Tourism dept to frame guidelines for adventure activities in J&K

With an aim to facilitate adventure tourism in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir Government is in the process of framing guidelines for adventure activities being carried out by various agencies in the state.

The guidelines envisage registration of the adventure tour operators, granting them proper permission for carrying out adventure activities, minimum requirements needed including equipment, safety norms, dos and don’ts for any agency to conduct such adventure activities in the state.

“J&K has huge potential in adventure tourism and many domestic and international tourists visit the state for adventure activities, “but unlike other states we never had adventure tourism guidelines,” said Rigzian Sampheal, Tourism Secretary.

“We want to frame the guidelines as per GoI norms and are aimed at setting high standards for carrying out adventure sports activities which will help us in tapping huge potential of adventure tourism which has not been properly harnessed due to lack of standard regulation and safety norms. It is therefore important to have proper guidelines for this important tourism segment which attracts good number of tourists and locals also,” said Sampheal.

Before the draft guidelines framed by the department are finalised, the department is inviting feedback from the people associated with the adventure tourism and the general public so as to have comprehensive guidelines for carrying out adventure activities in the state.

The department has asked the stakeholders and the general public to send their feedback to the directorate offices at Jammu and Srinagar within 15 days.
Based on the feedback, which would be scrutinised, the department would formally launch the guidelines, reported UNI.