Stakeholders hopeful of increase in tourist footfall

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 17

The stakeholders are hopeful that the tourist arrivals to the Kashmir valley would witness an increase in the summer months. The overall arrivals continue to remain on the lower side as compared to the last year, but the footfall in April and May witnessed a slight increase. The tourism players, however, say the increase in arrivals in past two months was negligible and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should personally intervene and give a “strong message” to intending tourists.

“Occupancy in hotels continues to be mere five per cent despite our efforts to woo tourists through a series of promotional campaigns. Now that the elections are over, Modi should give a strong message across India that Kashmir is safe for travel. Governor Satya Pal Malik should take up the matter with Modi. The PM has to give personal attention to Kashmir tourism as the government has in the past stated that tourism promotion was their top priority,” J&K Hoteliers’ Club (JKHC) chairman Mushtaq A Chaya told The Tribune.

He made the comments in the backdrop of low tourist footfall as the stakeholders had earlier blamed tension on the Indo-Pak border after the Balakot airstrike and then conduct of Lok Sabha elections for the same.

A senior tourism official said there was a ray of hope as 61,815 tourists had visited the Valley in April as compared to 58,664 in the same month last year. However, overall, only around 1.7 lakh tourists had visited Kashmir till the third week of May as compared to 2.8 lakh till May-end last year.

The overall tourist arrivals in 2018 were less than 8.5 lakh as compared to over 12 lakh in 2017.