Adverse travel advisories kill foreign tourism in Kashmir

Tourism stakeholders say that the Jammu and Kashmir government is promoting tourism in the rest of the states but does not focus on the promotion outside the country. As per the official figures, in the last three years, foreign tourist arrivals in Kashmir Valley have dipped by almost 95.22 per cent, while domestic visitors have increased by 20 per cent.

Srinagar: Kashmir may be seeing an influx of domestic tourists these days but foreign visitors are staying away from the valley due to adverse travel advisories and the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the number of foreigners visiting Kashmir has witnessed a prolonged dip since militancy erupted in Kashmir, the last few years saw an even further decline due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Tourism stakeholders say that the Jammu and Kashmir government is promoting tourism in the rest of the states but does not focus on the promotion outside the country. As per the official figures, in the last three years, foreign tourist arrivals in Kashmir Valley have dipped by almost 95.22 per cent, while domestic visitors have increased by 20 per cent.

Compared to the foreign tourist arrivals from 2016, a steep decline has been seen in the last four years. In 2017, 31,697 foreign tourists arrived in Kashmir compared to 24,516 in 2016. In 2018, 31,413 foreigners visited Kashmir. In 2019, the numbers went up slightly with 33,779 foreign tourists visiting the Valley. In 2019, at least 33,779 foreign tourists and 53,175,3 domestic tourists had visited Kashmir valley until the abrogation of Article 270 in August when the erstwhile state was put under strict security restrictions.

In 2020, both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals declined by more than 89 per cent and 93 per cent respectively, primarily due to Covid-19 pandemic. The official figures reveal that in 2020, only 3,897 foreign and 37,370 domestic tourists visited the valley as lockdown restrictions were eased. In 2021, only 1,615 foreign travellers visited the valley.

This year, till the end of February, only 500 foreign tourists have visited Kashmir as compared to 1.80 lakh domestic visitors who arrived in Kashmir in March alone. "Kashmir was an abode of travellers from Europe, the US and other foreign countries until 1990 when the situation became violent and uncertain. The majority of the foreign countries came up with adverse advisors on Kashmir," several travel operators in Srinagar told ETV Bharat.

They said that even though the situation for the tourism sector has increased, the government has solely focussed on promoting domestic tourism. "The idea of promoting Kashmir as a safe and foreign tourist destination is lacking. No one is trying to convince foreign countries to lift the advisors on travelling Kashmir," they said.

On March 30, the USA issued a new travel advisory urging its citizens to exercise increased caution and also advised them not to travel to Kashmir and within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border.