J-K Govt to use social media to counter ‘negative’ image of state

Ravi S Singh

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 4

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to encourage and use social media to counter the alleged “negative perception” about the state, which has adversely affected its tourism — a robust revenue earner.

Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, while addressing travel and tour operators here yesterday, said: “We will soon resort to social media to counter the negative perception. The negative perception has badly affected, among others, the tourism of the state.”

The occasion was an interactive session of tour operators with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to shore up the tourism sector in the state.

Drabu also attended the event and made a substantive presentation of the state’s views and measures to boost tourism. He was critical of the TV channels which project the state in a negative light. He referred to the “exaggerated and distorted” coverage of the floods in September last year by the channels.

“The scary picture painted by the channels resulted in cancellation of trips by 40 per cent of the tourists who had made all arrangements, including lodgings,” he said.

Mufti urged the operators to take it upon themselves to launch a counter to project the state’s pristine beauty and “peaceful” and sociable nature of its netizens.

“I urge the public at large to visit the state and narrate their exhilarating experience. Kashmir can be of India what Davos is to Switzerland in terms of its wide-ranging panoramic scenes of natural beauty. The place has the potential to emerge as a haunt of the corporates and to hold meetings of their company boards,” the CM said.

“My government is battling on two fronts to restore the past glory of the most sought after tourist destination. Damages caused by the floods and the negative perception,” he added.