J&K tourism department data says over 3.5 lakh touristshave visited Kashmir in the last three months. This number is expected to go upin the coming months.

Praveen Jain and AnanyaBhardwaj

24April, 2022 01:03 pm IST

Srinagar:Serpentine queues at the airport’s baggage claim, families waiting at Dal Laketo hop onto a shikara, couples posing in traditional Kashmiri attire at NishatBagh, a bustling Lal Chowk, packed restaurants, fully booked hotels — theKashmir Valley is seeing a rush of tourists, with local authorities describingit as the biggest footfall in 10 years.

Despite apprehensions about the security situation, for manytourists, their first visit to the Valley is a “dream come true”. Thesetourists have flocked to the Valley in groups, along with their families, fromacross the country.

This is a dream. Are we really in Kashmir?” said PraveenaDarshan from Mumbai, posing in front of the clock tower at Lal Chowk.“It is like a dream come true. I always wanted to visit Kashmir and, finally,we mustered the courage to do so. This was the best decision ever. This isheaven on earth,” she said. “Moreover, so much security around is veryreassuring. We feel safe.”

According to data available with the J&K tourismdepartment, over 3.5 lakh tourists have visited Kashmir in the last threemonths. This number is expected to go up in the coming months. As many as 6.6lakh tourists from across the country visited the Valley in 2021, aconsiderable increase from 41,000 in 2020.

J&K has been witnessing a considerable decline intourist footfall since 2019, following the scrapping of Article 370. Thedecline was further accelerated by Covid restrictions, which dealt another blowto the Valley’s bustling tourism industry.

“We have not seen such a footfall in the last 10 years,since 2012. Our data shows that this has been a bumper season for us,” said DrG.N. Itoo, Director of Kashmir Tourism.

“Every season we get around 50,000 tourists on average, andnow, in just three months, we have over 3 lakh. People are now confident thatit is safe to travel to Kashmir,” he added. “Our initiatives for boostingtourism have borne fruit. The local traders, businessmen who depend on tourism,and Kashmir’s economy, will get a big boost.”