Auqib Javeed, TwoCircles.net
Srinagar: Despite advocating normalcy by uplifting the ban on social media, the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory administration has failed to woo back tourists to the Valley.
Internet speed is restricted to 2G while tourism players express their bleak luck with almost negligible or less than 10 per cent advance bookings for March and April, the time when the Valley usually experiences maximum tourists as Spring is in full bloom. On 5 August, when the Central government decided to revoke the special status of the erstwhile state, it had issued travel advisory asking tourists to leave the Valley forthwith. Thousands of tourists were forcibly evacuated, leaving Kashmir’s tourism operators, hoteliers, and houseboat owners into dismay.
Over seven months after the communication blockade, the govt has lifted travel advisory for tourists and even held many road shows across India to woo back tourists but data accessed by TwoCircles.net shows a sharp decline in tourist arrival in Kashmir. The data, a copy of which lies with TwoCircles.net show the total number of tourists that arrived in Kashmir in January 2020 as 4863, out of which 3792 are domestic and 1071 are international.
In comparison to January 2019, the figures are highly contrasting – with a total number of 25095 tourists visiting Kashmir in January, out of which 22616 were domestic while 2480 were foreigners.
In July 2019, Kashmir received 152,525 tourists in total but August 2019 saw only 10,130 arrivals. This number further fell to 4,562 in September 2019, and grew to 12,086 in November 2019. According to the report, in 2018, Kashmir had received 316,434 tourists between the months of August and December, while in 2019, this number fell to 43,059 for the same period— registering a decline of 86 percent. The report, which has analyzed data from the State Tourism Department, said in its conclusion that tourist arrivals in Kashmir fell after the Centre’s August 5 move, with which came with a heavy troop deployment and communication clampdown acting as death blow to the tourism industry and other associated industries in the Valley.
One can see Srinagar’s iconic Dal lake without any buzz, with empty houseboats and a few shikaras idly dotting the colourful landscape. The shikarawallas wait for customers the whole day and the hotels around Dal Lake also remain empty most of the time.“I have 12 rooms in my hotel and you can check all the rooms are empty,” said Shahnawaz Ahmad who owns Hotel Dal view. Ahmad says they were expecting tourists in the month of January and February but “nobody came, not a single group booked my hotel” he says.
An official from the Tourism department while talking to TwoCircles.net blamed Coronavirus outbreak for the decrease in tourist footfall. “As we know because of the Coronavirus outbreak, the tourism in the whole world has taken a sharp dip and we can’t expect tourist in Kashmir too,” he said wishing not to be named. He further added the government is working on bringing back tourists to Kashmir by holding different road shows across India.
“We are in a bad condition at present,” Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Alliance (JKTA), Manzoor Pakhtoon told TwoCircles.net. He said that when the Centre announced the advisory last year, many tourists had fled Kashmir in bad taste while many had to cut short their stay. “That was something really bad for Kashmir’s tourism sector which continues to haunt us,” he said. Manzoor added that tourist footfall remains at peak during Spring season, but this one is different in the last 16 years. Associated industries like handicrafts, houseboat owners, hoteliers and other businessmen in the Valley are hopeless too. He opined that further addition to their miseries came in the form of the J&K government doing nothing new or extraordinary to woo tourists to Kashmir given the fact “tourism industry is falling apart.”
“There were some road shows in many parts of India but that’s a routine,” he said. On behalf of the industries associated with tourism in the Valley, he has urged the Centre to immediately restore high speed internet services so that tourism starts picking up again and the industry is saved from collapsing completely.
“There is a notion among tourists that something was worrisome in Kashmir as authorities have snapped high speed internet and banned social media,” said Mir Anwar, President, Travel Agents Society Kashmir (TASK). He added that in March every year, the usual is 70 per cent advance booking, but this year the booking is not even 5 per cent. Extending his disappointment with the Govt’s disinterest of reviving tourism in the Valley, Anwar vociferously demanded restoration of internet service so that tourism picks up again.