Uttarakhand has immense possibilities in yoga and adventure tourism activities, said Union Minister of State for tourism, K J Alphons. “Trekking, river rafting, water sports, paragliding, skiing and bungy jumping are some of the activities with immense potential,” he said while speaking on the sidelines of the Destination Uttarakhand Investors Summit-2018. The minister also said that developing adventure sports activities and yoga in the state will provide employment to the locals. Alphons urged the investors to come forward to invest in the adventure tourism sector and asked the State Government to stand motivated to develop the sector appropriately.
“Tourism sector has generated 14.6 million jobs over the past four years and now it supports 84 million jobs in the country. The tourism department is planning to make tourism a 100 million dollar industry by the year 2020,” said K J Alphons. The Central Government is planning to expand the capacity of Gauchar, Chinyalisaud and Pithoragarh airstrips in Uttarakhand.
“Minister K J Alphons has assured to convene a meeting of the officials of the Union forest ministry and the Uttarakhand tourism department to sort out environment and forest- related issues hindering further growth of the tourism sector in the state. Possibilities of setting up an international airport in Uttarakhand are also being explored. The Government of Uttarakhand has rolled out a new tourism policy and a large number of people have shown interest in the home stay scheme,” said Uttarakhand Tourism and Culture Minister Satpal Maharaj.
“Uttarakhand government has given a status of industry to the tourism sector and memorandum of understanding (MoU) to the tune of Rs 30000 crore has been signed under the tourism sector during the summit,” said the State tourism secretary Dilip Jawalkar.
