J&K woos IT firms as MICE destination

The Jammu and Kashmir government is working on a strategy to woo IT companies from south India to choose Kashmir as its MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibition) destination.

According to Javid Amin, resident commissioner, J&K Tourism, the government is currently interacting with IT companies to understand their requirements.

"Based on the feedback from IT companies, a suitable strategy will be worked out wherein special packages will be offered for groups and individuals," he added.

Kashmir is an excellent summer destination. Though it has a good tourism infrastructure (hotels and convention facility), telecom connectivity needs to be improved, he further added.

Jammu and Kashmir in the last three years has been witnessing a spurt in the influx of tourists and pilgrims. In 2006, over five lakh tourists visited the state. In 2005, around four lakh, in 2004, 1.81 lakh and in 2003, it was just 19,000 tourists.

Among the tourist arrivals, Gujarat and Maharashtra topped the list followed by Delhi and West Bengal.

"But tourist arrivals from the southern states is minuscule and J&K is seriously working out a strategy to attract tourists from the southern states," said Amin.

According to him, "The fear of terrorism, high airfares and the distance are the main reasons for low tourist arrivals from southern states."

Earlier, Rohit Hangal, Director, Travel media networks speaking on 'SWOT on the MICE industry in Bangalore', said, "There is no concerted effort to promote Bangalore as a MICE destination and urged the state tourism department to set up a directorate to aggressively market Bangalore as a MICE destination."

The city has strengths like numerous research organisations, proximity to leisure destination of Kodagu, Mysore, Hassan and Chikmagalur. But its weakness are that the hotels are overpriced due to a mismatch between demand and supply, limited night life and lack of data of MICE activity.