Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Nov 30: The tourism sector known as the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy which was hit after recent attacks on non locals is back on track as tourists footfall is increasing with each passing day.
Spokesperson of Kashmir Houseboat Owners Association (KHOA) Yaqoob Dunoo said that after recent attacks on non- locals, the tourism sector was hit badly but the tourists again started visiting the valley after a few days.
He said that presently all hotels are full in Srinagar and Gulmarg while houseboats are also witnessing good occupancy but due to cold conditions, tourists prefer to remain in hotels in winter.
“Contact any hotel you will find booked for several days. If the same number of tourists continue to come to Kashmir, it will have very positive effects on people associated with tourism directly and the whole Kashmir indirectly,” Dunoo said.
He said that the government is also doing well to promote tourism in Kashmir and hopefully tourism will flourish now as it has gone through very off time since 2019.
Manzoor Kundroo, senior member of Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK) and managing director Great Himaliyan travels said that recent non local killings decreased 20 percent tourist footfall for around two weeks but now tourist footfall has again increased.
“We have suffered losses in the last few weeks and it happened due to negative publicity by some media outlets but now we are back on track,” he said.
Kundroo said that in the last few years the tourism sector and people associated with it suffered huge losses but they are now hopeful that more and more tourists will visit the valley so that the sector will flourish again.
