‘Winter carnival’ at Patnitop in January

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 24

To attract more visitors to the state, the Tourism Department, Jammu, is going to organise ‘Winter carnival’ in January at Patnitop, Bhaderwah and Sanasar.

Starting on January 12, the three-day carnival will have various cultural activities, games and events. The Lohri festival will also be celebrated during the carnival.

“The idea is to attract more tourists from the different parts of the country. The main focus will be on the tourists from Punjab, Himachal, Gujarat and Rajasthan,” said Samita Sethi, Director, Tourism, Jammu. “To make it more convenient for the tourists, we have organised it during the Lohri festival,” she added.

As these destinations probably will be snow-covered during the festival days, the department is expecting a good response from tourists.

The department has appealed to various hotel associations to offer attractive discount packages during the ‘Winter carnival’. Different tour and travel agents have also been requested to make attractive packages for Bhaderwah, Patnitop and Sanasar, so that these places can be developed as preferred tourist spots.

“Hotel associations have assured us that good discount will be offered to the tourists, but we are going to have another meeting with them to get some more offers for visitors,” said Samita.

However, the department does not plan to hold a festival around Christmas or New Year’s eve when local tourists usually head for Patnitop and Bhaderwah.