Relative peace in Kashmir starts paying dividends to locals as tourism sees boom

Relative peace in Kashmir in recent years has started to pay its dividends to the locals with 1.80 lakh tourist arrivals recorded in the Valley in March this year, which was the highest in the past decade.

The tourism stakeholders expect the rush to increase further in the coming months as temperatures would soar in the plains of the country and the annual Amarnath Yatra will also begin from June 30, after remaining suspended for two-years due to Covid-19 pandemic.

At the end of 2021, a glimmer of hope emerged on the horizon for Kashmir's tourism sector. The hope soon turned into a bonanza, with the tourist footfall steadily rising as the New Year progressed.

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Director Tourism, Kashmir, G N Itoo said that in March, 1,79,970 tourists arrived in the Valley, which is a record in the past 10 years.

“We expect further increase in tourist arrivals and the credit for the revival of tourism goes to collective efforts of all the stakeholders,” he said.

“The department had started a vigorous promotional campaign after the first wave of Covid-19 waned. We conducted road-shows across the country and when the second wave of Covid-19 hit the country, we vaccinated all the members of the tour and travel fraternity as a confidence-building measure,” Itoo added.

A professor at Kashmir University’s Economics department said that the huge tourist influx in Kashmir shows that efforts of the government were starting to bear fruits and normalcy was returning. However, he said, more efforts are needed to give impetus to tourism growth.

More than six lakh tourists visited Kashmir in 2021 which was largely lost to the uncertainties of Covid-19, even though the economic situation had improved globally. Of these six lakh tourists, 99 per cent were domestic tourists, many of them from the high-end category, which was also indicated by high air traffic.

The tourism sector in Kashmir was badly hit post-August 5, 2019, when the Center revoked the erstwhile state’s special status and subsequently imposed a security and communication lockdown.

As things were settling, the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, shattered the dreams of a revival of the tourism sector in the Valley. However, after October 2021, tourists again started flocking to Kashmir.

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