Over 1.37 lakh tourists visit Ladakh in 2013

More than 1.37 lakh tourists thronged the world's highest inhabited plateau Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir this year, a senior official has said.
As many as 1,37,400 tourists visited Ladakh region this year so far, Director Tourism Kashmir Talat Parvaiz said during a review meeting with Minister of Tourism Gulam Ahmed Mir and Minister for Urban Development and Local Bodies Nawang Rigzin Jora here yesterday.
Parvaiz said Rs 11.68 crore have been spent on various projects, including construction of tourist infrastructure facilities, to promote tourism.
"All efforts are being made to promote the tourism industry and attract tourists from across the globe to the State," Mir said.

He also stressed on capacity building programmes should be expanded to provide training to the people for promoting cultural heritage tourism.
Jora emphasised on the need for timely submissions of the utilisation certificates of the works under execution for timely release of funds. He also exhorted on consolidation process to ensure that the ongoing projects are completed before new projects are taken up.
He asked officials to improve infrastructural and logistic facilities to attract tourists for Sindhu Darshan festival.