JOIN USAfter a two-year slump, Kashmir tourism in revival mode
The Kashmir tourism sector, battered since August 2019 due to back-to-back lockdowns, witnessed a considerably good season in 2021 despite the flare up of Covid-19 as domestic visitors kept flocking to the Valley.
As per figures from the J&K Tourism Department, over 6.4 lakh tourists visited Kashmir this year, of which more than 3.30 lakh arrivals were recorded in October, November and December.
“In October, we had 93,000 tourists and in November 1.27 lakh visitors arrived in Kashmir. It had already crossed the 1.18 lakh-mark till December 25 and we are sure the number will be over 1.30 lakh by the year-end,” Deputy Director, Tourism, Ahsan-ul-Haq said.
Officials said that 99 per cent of the total tourist arrivals are domestic tourists who preferred to visit Kashmir while Covid-19 protocols and advisories kept away foreigners.
In 2020, Kashmir recorded only 41,267 tourist arrivals as the region remained under severe lockdown due to Covid-19 for most of the year. Similarly, after the Centre abrogated the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 and imposed a strict security lockdown after August 5, 2019, only 43,059 tourist arrivals were recorded in Kashmir for five months from August to December 2019.
Over six lakh arrivals this year are being considered a good sign by industry players due to Covid threat even though the state had witnessed more than 12 lakh tourist arrivals per annum for several years.
Before insurgency erupted in the late 1980s, 7.22 lakh tourists, including 59,938 from abroad, came to Kashmir in 1988. However, by 1990, the number of tourists went down to 10,772 which went further down to 8,520 in 1995. By 2005, the revival started when 5.86 lakh tourists visited Kashmir and in 2011 the number touched 12.82 lakhs. Despite unrest in 2016, nearly 12 lakh tourists visited Kashmir in 2017.
This time the tourism department and the industry took many initiatives to woo visitors back to Kashmir, with the key step being fully vaccinating tourism officials on war footing. The events like snow carnivals, Christmas and the New Year are attracting more tourists to Kashmir.
“In December we are recording over 6,000 arrivals a day which is a good sign for the tourism sector which was in distress. All the hotel rooms are booked in ski-resort of Gulmarg and there is a good number of bookings for January and February 2022 as well. We are hopeful that it will continue to be like this next year as well,” President, Travel Agents Association of Kashmir, Farooq Kuthoo said.
Recently, the government also fixed rates for tourism services to discourage the practice of fleecing tourists visiting Kashmir. The step was taken after complaints in recent years that tourists were being overcharged and exploited by transporters, hoteliers, and other service providers during peak season in Kashmir.
Check out DH's latest videos