J&K tourism department to come up with safety guidelines for adventure tourism

In order to promote adventure tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government is working towards devising new guidelines for adventure activities being undertaken by different business concerns in the state.

According to news reports, these guidelines would include registration of tour operators, giving due permission to them for undertaking adventure activities as well as setting up a standard of the bare minimum requirements for equipment to be used, safety rules and the rulebook for any adventure tourism agency to perform the activities in J&K.
Tourism secretary, Rigzian Sampheal, reportedly said that the state has an enormous prospect to grow as an adventure tourism state. Already, there are tourists visiting the destination for the sake of adventure activities such as skiing and trekking. However, the state never had adventure tourism guidelines in place the way other Indian states have.

Reportedly, Rigzin Sampheal told the press that the government intends to come up with guidelines on the basis of Gol norms. He also opined that the state wants to set high benchmarks for executing adventure sports activities for drawing on the huge scope of adventure tourism that is yet to be duly utilised, due to the absence of standard regulatory and safety guidelines.

All these reasons, according to Rigzin Sampheal, make it all the more crucial for the adventure tourism industry in Jammu & Kashmir to have proper guidelines in place. Prior to the approval of this draft of safety guidelines, the department is seeking feedback from agencies connected with adventure tourism and the members of public, in order to have an exhaustive rule book for adventure activities in the state.
News has it that the tourism department would officially circulate the guidelines after receiving the feedback and duly scrutinising it for implementation