J&K: Tourism sees surge in Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370

Wahid Malik, the president of the Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Owners Federation, said that the annual Amarnath Yatra did not have any significant impact on hotel bookings as they came and returned in convoy via Pahalgam and Baltal for darshan.

Srinagar: After a gap of 3 years, the tourism sector in Kashmir is back on track. The splendour of the popular tourist places here has grown quite significantly visible over the past few years. The current tourism season in Jammu and Kashmir is being hailed as the golden era in tourism history as the previous years' records were broken during the initial months of this year. According to the figures, more than one crore domestic and foreign tourists have visited the Kashmir Valley since January.

Although the months of July and August are usually considered off-season, the number of tourists did not see a dip even in these months this year. Meanwhile, the annual Amarnath Yatra, which started on June 30 -- 2 years after the Covid crisis -- has also completed 43 days with the ardent participation of several devotees from across the country.

Pilgrim tourism plays a key role in the tourism of Jammu and Kashmir, while a major part of the economy here is also dependent on it. In such a situation, the state natives working in the tourism sector are quite satisfied with what the decision of abrogation seemingly entails. A record number of Amarnath Yatris has been recorded in the early months of this year.

According to data, 61,000 tourists visited several tourist places in January, while the number further reached one lakh in February. Similarly, around 2 lakh tourists visited the Kashmir Valley in March. In the month of April, 260,000 tourists visited Kashmir Valley. May and June also saw lakhs of tourists and hotels were 95% pre-booked by June.

Wahid Malik, the president of the Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant Owners Federation, said that the annual Amarnath Yatra did not have any significant impact on hotel bookings as they came and returned in convoy via Pahalgam and Baltal for darshan. Meanwhile, to bring the tourism industry of Kashmir back on track and attract more tourists to Kashmir, the tourism department has also identified around 75 new destinations in Jammu and Kashmir this year, of which 38 are in Kashmir and 37 are in Jammu.

Tour and travel operators are calling this trend of tourists in the Kashmir Valley very encouraging, but they are demanding financial packages for those who have been affected because of the same decision over the past three years.