Srinagar: Tourists thronging Kashmir is good news for the stakeholders as they have suffered immensely during the past two years.
According to the media reports hotels and resorts across the Valley are receiving many enquiries and many people are expected to visit Kashmir in coming days. “We witnessed a good rush during winter season as tourist thronged Gulmarg, Phalgam and other places to celebrate Christmas and New Year. The tourists have been coming continuously and we hope that they will keep on coming,” said, an hotelier.
On Tuesday J&K Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, paid a visit to Dal Lake, where he met several tourists who had come from different states.
The LG enquired about the experiences of their visit to Jammu and Kashmir and told them to “be the goodwill ambassadors of J&K and carry the message that it is an ideal and safe tourist destination.”
A travel agent while talking to Precious Kashmir said, “There are thousands of people who eke out their living through tourism in the Valley. During the past two years many lost their jobs as hotels and restaurants had stopped functioning. The tourist cab operators had nothing to do. We were promised a special package but till date we haven’t received any help.”
He said, “Tourists are visiting the Valley due to our hard work and relentless efforts. We are trying our best to sell Kashmir as the favorite tourist destination and we have succeeded in our endeavor to a great extent.”
An official of the Tourism Department said, “We are making every possible attempt to facilitate the tourists who are visiting Kashmir. We are aware of the fact that industry has suffered huge losses. This year we are hoping that there will be a boom in the arrival of tourists as their number is increasing with each passing day.”
The official said that at present mostly the domestic tourists are visiting Kashmir and if the COVID-19 subsides they expect foreign tourists also.
An owner of a restaurant said, “Things are looking up. After the outbreak of COVID-19 I had to close down my restaurant for many months but now I have reopened it again and it seems that we are back into business.”
He said, “We are hoping that the fears about second wave of COVID-19 reaching Kashmir get dispelled as we cannot afford to have one more off season.”
Hotels, resorts receive enquiries, tourism revival brings smiles back
