With Covid-19 cases on decline, tourism industry in Kashmir is slowly getting back on track with tourist arrivals seeing an increase of late.
With hill stations like Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Sonamarg, Achabal, Kokernag and other places open, the hotels and houseboats around the Dal Lake in Srinagar too are opening. Tourists could be seen taking shikara (boat) rides around the lake and enjoying pleasant weather.
To woo tourists back, hotels and houseboats are providing huge discounts with prices slashed by as much as 50%. On an average 30 flights operate at Srinagar International Airport these days with seven to eight thousand people travelling to and fro Kashmir.
It may be mentioned that earlier this year, amid worsening Covid-19 situation, flight arrivals had seen a dip. The daily arrivals at the Srinagar Airport in May and June, when Covid cases had peaked, had dropped to as low as 14 to 18 flights.
Before the second wave of Covid-19 hit J&K like the rest of the country earlier this year, the tourist arrivals during the winter had seen a sharp rise in Kashmir. As per official figures from November 2020 to March 2021 1.11 lakh tourists visited Kashmir which was threefold from 36,728 during November 2019-March 2020.
The hotel bookings also went up in the first four months of this year with the direct flight services from various cities like Ahmedabad and Bengaluru to Srinagar making travel to Kashmir easier.
This was largely on account of travelers who could no longer fly to international destinations like Switzerland for a ‘white winter’ experience, in view of the pandemic. The tourism sector is a significant contributor to Jammu and Kashmir’s economy and accounts for around seven per cent of the region’s gross domestic product, according to Union Territory government’s estimates.
A member of Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK), a representative of more than 100 tourism agencies said enquiries from tourists have started to take place for the upcoming festival seasons. “If there is no third wave of Covid, this season could see a record number of tourists visiting Kashmir,” he hoped.
All the tourists arriving in the valley are being asked for their vaccination certificates as well as the test results of Covid-19. Tourists have also been asked to make sure that they follow all the Covid protocol.