Valley tourism grapples with declining footfall

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 7

At this time of the year, when the tourism season used to peak, complaints of stakeholders that the government was not doing much to improve hotel infrastructure used to be common.

Tourists without prior bookings would find it hard to get a room. But this season, bookings are easily available. Airfares would touch the sky at this time with flights to Srinagar at times costing more than international journey. However, airfares are yet to soar this year as seen in the past.

After three consecutive rounds of street protest in the summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010 that badly affected the tourism sector, a total of 13,14,432 tourists visited the Valley in 2011. The footfall remained good in 2012 as the numbers again crossed the 13-lakh mark (13,08,765).

Slump after ray of hope

However, just when the stakeholders were hoping for an increase in arrivals, the footfall dipped to 11,71,130 in 2013 and 11,67,180 in 2014.

The stakeholders had for long been suggesting ways of exploiting the full tourism infrastructure in the Valley. They are mainly worried about decreasing footfalls at present.

While officials are tight-lipped over arrivals this year, Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA) chief spokesman Siraj Ahmad, also a hotelier, said there was a dip of more than 60 per cent in hotel bookings this year.

Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Owners Federation ex-president Faiz Bakshi, who is joint general secretary of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, echoed similar views. “There has been a dip of 70 per cent in bookings. This is the peak tourist season, but we are at the lowest ebb,” he said.

Floods haunt the sector

Stakeholders say the flood threat this year had again forced cancellation of bookings after the sector took a serious hit during the floods in September last year.

A senior official of the Tourism Department said besides the frequent threats, ‘negative’ flow of news during a series of attacks on mobile phone tower owners last month had deterred tourists from visiting the Valley.

Core issues take backseat

Gulzar Ahmad, a travel agent, said whenever footfalls decreased, the attention towards addressing the overall issues facing the sector took a backseat.

“The government talks a lot about boosting adventure, heritage and high-end tourism. Whenever arrivals dip, attention shifts towards bringing back tourists and our long-pending demands for improvement in tourism infrastructure remain unaddressed,” he said.

The main demands of stakeholders are industrial benefits to tourism sector, more flights and trains, cap on exorbitant airfares in peak season, widening of roads and beautification of tourist places, exploring new tourist destinations, developing heritage tourism, lifting negative travel advisories, upgrade of hotel infrastructure, setting up of luxury hotels and setting up common sewage treatment plants.

Looking ahead

An official said the Tourism Department would hold a series of events and roadshows across the country to bring back tourists. He said several events were on the cards after Ramzan, including an international rafting event at Sonamarg resort. He said maintenance of peace was imperative to development of tourism.

Private stakeholders are planning to hold events so that footfalls increase. Adventure Tour Operators Association of Kashmir president Rauf Tramboo said they would host international paragliding and rock climbing championships after the month of fasting in an effort to woo tourists.