SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Enforcement Department received 241 complaints from tourists between January 1 and October 1 this year, of which 140 have been disposed of while 101 remain pending.
According to data, the department imposed fines amounting to Rs 16,95,700 on erring service providers during the period and facilitated refunds worth Rs 36,43,440 to aggrieved tourists.
The data showed that Jammu Kashmir recorded 15,45,347 domestic tourist arrivals during the period, while 16,020 foreign tourists visited the Union Territory.
Senior Superintendent Tourism Enforcement SD Choudhary said the department was engaging with both service providers and tourists to identify gaps in hospitality and improve the overall visitor experience.
He said an outreach event was organised to seek feedback from stakeholders and create greater awareness about appropriate conduct and responsibilities among service providers and visitors.
“The purpose of this event is to interact with all the service providers and tourists. Because some people are lacking in hospitality, which is a very basic thing here. We want to get their feedback so that we can improve and share their do’s and don’ts,” Choudhary said.
On tourist arrivals, Choudhary said the footfall had remained encouraging despite intermittent challenges and was expected to improve further.
“Alhamdulillah, the footfall has been very good and you can see that it will continue to improve. Because the footfall is always good. Although we have faced some problems many times, but even after that our footfall is good and improving,” he said.
Choudhary said the number of complaints remained below one per cent when compared with the overall tourist footfall.
“Complaints keep coming, but if we look at the tourism ratio and the complaint ratio, it is not even one per cent,” he said.
He said the department takes legal action on complaints and seeks to resolve grievances at the earliest while maintaining communication with the complainants.
“But all the complaints that come, we get rid of them. And within the shortest possible time, we do all the legal actions to the satisfaction of tourists,” Choudhary said.
“We communicate with them and get their feedback and close the footfall,” he added. (KNS)
