Nasir Azam
Srinagar, Aug 7: Kashmir’s world-famous tourist resort Gulmarg has received nearly 3 million visitors in the last two-and-half years, with over a million thronging the place this year so far, officials said on Monday.
Last week, Jammu and Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said that in the first seven months of 2023, 1.27 crore tourists visited the union territory.
An official said that soon after the easing of the Covid-19 situation, Gulmarg witnessed an exponential increase in tourist arrivals, with the majority of the visits recorded under the domestic circuit.
According to the official figures available, just only more than 98,000 arrivals were recorded in the entire year 2020, the world-famous ski destination during the last couple of years recorded over 31 lakh visitors – from January 2021 till July this year. This includes locals, foreigners, and visitors from the domestic circuit.
In July, Gulmarg recorded over 2.15 lakh tourists, the highest so far in the ongoing year, while the month of February recorded as less as 92,000 arrivals.
The official figure breakdown states that in the ongoing year, over 7.6 lakh domestic tourists visited Gulmarg while it registered over 2.5 lakh locals and 5,500 foreigners.
The year 2021 recorded a total arrival of 6,18,076 tourists of which more than 3.6 lakh were from domestic circuit, while over 2.5 lakh were registered as locals. The year also recorded 16 arrivals of foreign tourists.
In 2022, the tourist destination recorded over 15 lakh visitors of which more than 10 lakh were domestic, 4.8 lakh local and over 3,900 foreigners.
The Lieutenant Governor last week said they are expecting last year’s tourism arrival figures of 1.88 crore to cross this year. He said the first seven months of 2023 have so far recorded 1.27 crore tourists and that the figures will cross 2.25 crore this year.
