Srinagar: Owing to its aggressive tourism promotion campaign on social media, J&K Tourism Facebook page has been ranked second among all state tourism boards in India in 2017.
Facebook Inc. has done the ranking based on total interactions including reactions, shares and comments on Facebook page from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017.
J&K Tourism department launched its official page in January 2017 and despite being just one year old it has taken lead over the pages by tourism board of Gujarat which has legendry bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador. In a year, J&K tourism Facebook page crossed 2 lakh followers making it fastest growing pages in India.
Director Tourism Kashmir Mahmood A Shah received the award on Monday at the hands of Nitin Saluja, Facebook Public Policy Manager India, South & Central Asia, at Facebook New Delhi office.
Director Tourism Kashmir thanked the people of the State and the country for supporting J&K Tourism by making its Facebook page most interactive and engaging.
Since its launch, the department has been posting pictures, videos, and drone visuals, short films on daily basis to promote potential of J&K tourism.
The page has also been countering the negative perception among the intending visitors about Kashmir.
The department of tourism has hired the services of the local companies for its social media campaign and media publicity while as all other content posted on Facebook has been created and generated by local amateur filmmakers.
The department has also the distinction of being the first tourism board in the country which started feeding live drone visuals on its Facebook page making it the most active page and giving its followers real time experience of the Kashmir’s breathtaking landscapes.
In one of its biggest ever tourism promotional campaigns, the department released a five-minute short film ‘Warmest Place on Earth’ which was posted on Facebook page on 23 September 2017 garnering millions of accumulated views in just one day.
The movie has crossed over 20 million accumulated views so far projecting Kashmiri people as most hospitable and lovable.
Director Tourism Kashmir said India is one of the biggest Facebook users as 25% of its population is engaged with Facebook.
“We can’t ignore this medium and it has helped us a lot in promoting our known and lesser known destinations. We made drone videos of the lesser travelled places like Doodpathri, Aharbal which promoted these places. Our Facebook page engages around 40 million people in a month,” said Director Tourism.
The department has also been vigorously promoting state’s tourism potential on other handles like Twitter, Instagram and also Youtube.
