Srinagar, April 14 -- Seeking support of tourism players in promoting the industry back home, Abdullah highlighted the challenges posed by "ridiculous prices" of air tickets to and fro Kashmir and hoped for a relief by the inauguration of direct train by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coming days.

"We have nine new destinations in mind that we hope to get funded through a multilateral agency. We hope these destinations will ease some sort of pressure on Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Sonmarg in the valley and also open up areas of Jammu hitherto undiscovered for tourism.

"Until those new destinations come up, the valley as we see it today is pretty much saturated. The moment the tulip garden is open, Srinagar for all intents and purposes grinds...