Srinagar: Director Tourism, Kashmir Nisar Ahmad Wani has said that the department would aggressively market J&K as a top tourist destination in the upcoming events post COVID-19 pandemic.
He emphasized to promote additional services such as food tourism after the lockdown restrictions are relaxed.
At a meeting held Tuesday, the Director sought help from the newly constituted Restaurant and Cafe Association (RAK) to create awareness among the restaurant owners to register their food outlets as per the government order number 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 assured 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 making their registration process smooth and hassle-free.
During the meeting, Tourism director in presence of other members including Joint Director, Tabasum Kamili, Deputy Director Administration, Sammar Naik, Deputy Director Publication, Adeel Saleem, Deputy Director (Estates), Nighat Alam, and Deputy Director (Registration), Ahsan ul Haq Chesti were appraised on the current situation that Restaurant and Cafe was facing in resuming their business activities, and expressed fear that reluctance from the people to eat out would impact hugely on the business in the upcoming months once restrictions were relaxed.
Director Tourism advised that set guidelines would be issued once it is safe to open the restaurants and cafes 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, Wani said.
The Director Tourism expressed his willingness to extend every support to the Restaurant and Cafe association to promote food tourism alongside other tourism activities.
Wani said it was a good step that the forum was established to help the destination of 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.

KR Desk