Raja Syed Rather
Ganderbal, Sep 2: Sonamarg, a famous tourist place in Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, is witnessing massive footfall of tourists with 5,08,907 tourists visiting the destination in the last seven months.
Sonamarg, known as ‘the meadow of gold’ with snow clad mountains, situated at an altitude of 2730 m, is a mesmerizing hill station in district Ganderbal.
There was a surge in footfall of tourists from Jan to July with a total of 5,08,907 tourists visiting the place.
Of total, 4,76,010 were domestic visitors, 4,058 foreigners and 28,839 were locals, the officials said.
This is for the first time that Sonamarg witnessed a massive footfall of foreign tourists.
Abdul Rahim said that this season remained fruitful. “We are hopeful that the destination will witness many events, cultural programs in the future, which will give a further boost to the tourism sector,” he said.
“The flow of tourists is much better than what it was earlier. We are thankful to the tourism department for the promotion and with time, it’s getting better and better, a local hotelier said.
A local said that the tourism department should come up with some more initiatives that will attract the tourists towards the destination.
Hoteliers at Sonamarg said that this time all hotels are packed and the season is going on very well after several years.
