Srinagar, June 9
The cool wind blowing across the Dal lake and crowded market lanes with traders hawking Kashmiri handicrafts made for ideal summer destination today as the eight-day- long strike was lifted by separatists.
But such is the unpredictability of this ever-volatile land that travel operators and tourism officials believe that it would be a huge task to revive an industry which feeds more families than any other enterprise here.
Summer vacations are more than half way through, Houseboat Association president Azim Toman says, and they would be lucky if tourists return in the same number as looked likely a fortnight back. “We were partially hit by the Taliban scare but the scorching heat in the plains helped us. But this eight-day strike has been very cruel. We are most hospitable people but tourists suffered during these days. I don’t think they would be a good advertisement for us,” Owais Jan, a shikara owner, says.
Srinagar Airport’s director NV Subbarayudu told The Tribune that 11 domestic flights landing in Srinagar everyday were hardly 50-60 per cent full, a far cry from almost 100 per cent occupancy a fortnight back. On a more disappointing note, he adds that all outgoing flights have been full as the sudden eruption of protests and strike after the Shopian incident caught thousands of tourists already in the valley by surprise and they made a beeline for flight tickets.
However, most of the tourists have already left. Due to lack of demand, the prices of plane tickets have come down from both sides. Many tourists, who had found spiralling
plane tickets in the light of strikes prohibitive, have travelled out of the valley by road. Toman says tourists are still coming but their flow has come down drastically. An official says from more than 3,700 tourist arrivals two weeks back their numbers have slowly come around 2000. Groups of travellers could be seen around the Dal lake, a hub for tourists. Khursheed of Hotel Imperial, a hotel with an enviable location at Nehru Park, says they are still getting tourists but they have also begun offering a discount of over 30 per cent to attract them. In normal times, customers would have paid a premium to stay in the hotel.
Rajiv Ghai, a telecom company employee hailing from New Delhi, says he has been in Srinagar for the past five days. “I met many tourists who complained of bad quality food during the strike days. I was staying in Nehru Park where most of the shops remained open. I could not get a taxi for two days. I would think twice before coming here. We come here to enjoy ourselves, not to suffer,” he says.
But the onset of Amarnath yatra, which will begin from mid-June, could act as a catalyst for tourism revival in the valley. There is a near unanimity among travel operators that pilgrims’ arrival in large numbers would be just the medicine needed for the crippled industry. “So far, there has been only a few cancellation by pilgrims. Not more than 2 or 3 pe rcent,” Yaqoob Khan of Sita Travels says.
If separatists do not start another round of protests and strikes, the arrival of over four lakh pilgrims may turn the tide for lakhs of people depending upon tourism for their livelihood. Travel operators recall that almost every hotel was full during the beginning of the yatra last year before separatists brought life to a standstill over the land issue. “Things are bad now. It could get better, or worse” a travel operator says.
