A team of officials from the Union tourism ministry, led by minister Prahlad Patel, will be touring Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh next month to finalise the plans to boost tourism in the twonewly-formed Union territories by November 1.

In an interview  Prahlad Patel said he had already sent two officials from the Union culture and tourism ministry on deputation to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, who would act as an "advance team"before he would arrive there in the first week of September to take stock ofthe situation."I will to go to Leh first and then to Jammu and Kashmir tovisit the identified tourist spots and conduct a review. We need to provide skill training to guides, get them acquainted with different languages. We are planning to get this done over the next two months," he said on Monday.

The Union minister of state (independent charge) for tourism added that he would lead the teams unless he accompanied the prime minister onhis upcoming trip to Russia.

He said two recent decisions of the government -- on e-visa sand on opening up 137 peaks, 15 of which were in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,for foreign tourists -- would boost the tourist footfall in the region, whichin turn would help in the growth of both revenue-generating and employment opportunities. Prahlad Patel listed four key elements of his plan to prepare thetwo Union territories for tourism -- upgrading manpower, which would include training guides, build awareness on the bread-and-breakfast scheme, asking people to open up their homes at places where there is a shortage of hotels,give them basic training to run them and also promote adventure sports in a bigway.

"What we need to do is change perceptions like wemanaged to do in the north-east. We need to tell everyone that there are no security issues in the region and it will be safe for them to travel there.

"While we have the cultural heritage to get tourists tovisit these places, what we need to do is build amenities around them. We haveto identify areas and build infrastructure," he said.

Prahlad Patel further said while in Ladakh, the focus wouldbe on tourists from countries practising Buddhism with guides being taughtspecific languages, in the Kashmir Valley, the ministry was planning to revive the Sufi tradition at places like Kishtwar.On August 5, the government abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave aspecial status to Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into two Union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.