Buoyed by a record tourist footfall, Kashmir University recently launched a Masters programme in travel and hospitality to churn out trained professionals for the tourism industry, which has the potential to become one of the largest employers in Jammu & Kashmir. “In spite of having tremendous potential, Kashmir has failed to get its share in tourism. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of trained and professional manpower,” Professor Shabir Ahmad, Dean, Faculty of Commerce and Management, Kashmir University, was quoted as saying in a report by Bashaarat Masood in The Indian Express.
“The aim of the programme is to bridge this gap, to produce trained professional for the tourism industry,” Professor Ahmad added.
The course was in the pipeline for the past three years, but it was only after the state hosted a record number of tourists for the second consecutive year - the number was 1.2 million last year, the highest since 1987, and is likely to cross 1.6 million this year - that the university decided to proceed with the launch of the programme. The programme, said Riyaz Qureshi, a faculty member, would, in the long run, help streamline tourism policy, which is currently formulated by “non-professionals who disregard several important aspects of tourism".
“There is more focus on sustained and eco-friendly development especially at tourist destinations,” Qureshi said. “We can’t take a tourism policy of one state and replicate it in Kashmir. It has been happening here. We need professionals from the valley who know the cultural and ecological sensitivities of the place and keep them in mind while formulating such a policy.”