The Gurez Festival in north Kashmir district of Bandipor being organised by The Department of Tourism, Kashmir is all set to begin on Thursday.
During the festival, a number of adventurous activities like camping, trekking, angling and other recreational events will be organized at Gurez, which is surrounded by Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) from three sides.
On July 11, a car rally from Srinagar to Gurez, which was also flagged off by Director Tourism Dr G N Itoo from Srinagar, is also part of this festival.
Speaking on the ocassion, Dr Itoo said that the aim of organizing such festivals is to promote the Gurez valley as a tourism destination across the country.
He said that the Gurez Valley, in particular, has everything to offer for tourists from site seeing to adventure tourism. He added that the administration is keen to bring the Valley on the international tourist map and called for improving tourism infrastructure in Gurez Valley without disturbing the flora or fauna of the area.
Dr. Itoo further said that several measures have been initiated to improve connectivity to the picturesque valley to boost tourism.
On the sidelines of the event, Director Tourism visited several areas of Gurez valley and had on spot assessment of tourism infrastructure there. The valley remained cut off during winter months due to heavy snowfall.
During the visit, the director visited Razdan Top, Kanzalwan, Dawar and other areas of Gurez and inspected the facilities being provided to visitors there. He directed the officers to keep all basic amenities available at these places so that tourists face no inconvenience while visiting these places. He asked them to give wide publicity to tourism potential of this beautiful picturesque valley so that more tourists are attracted to this place.
While interacting with several tourism stakeholders and other locals during the visit, Dr Itoo asked them to come forward and avail the benefits of various incentives of starting tourism units for which, he said the department will extend all possible help.