Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Dec 23: Ahead of Christmas and New Year eve, the hotels at the world famous tourist destination in Gulmarg are jam-packed.
Hoteliers at the ski-resort said that all hotels in Gulmarg are packed currently and bookings have been completed for even January and February as well.
Ishfaq Ahmad, an hotelier at ski-resort, told KNO that hotels are fully packed currently while as for January there is 100 percent booking. “For February, we have 80 per cent bookings,” he said.
He said that the season is currently going on very well, however, Covid-19 threat is looming as today two bookings of his hotel were cancelled due to rising cases of Covid-19.
Other hoteliers also echoed the same voice and said that as of now there is good season of tourism in Gulmarg and some tourists return back to get hotels in Srinagar as no rooms are available at Gulmarg currently.
He said that government is doing wonderful job in promoting this destination, however, much more needs to be done so as to decorate this world famous destination.
Director Tourism Kashmir Faz Lul Haseeb told KNO that they will be having the winter carnival tomorrow at Gulmarg on eve of Christmas and then they are moving to Pahalgam for New Year celebrations and will move to other off beat destinations also like Doodpathri, Yousmarg for other festivals.
As of now he said that they don’t have any plans of LoC tourism but in coming time all far off places like Gurez, Teetwal, Uri, Karnah and Lolab will be explored.
He said that helicopter services for Gurez and Karnah are already operational.
He said that Covid-19 is not a new thing and social distance, wearing masks as and when “we realize that precautions needs to be taken. I think we all should take those precautions.”
